A radical Islamist suspected of helping organise the deadly 2015 attack on the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo has been handed preliminary terrorism charges after being extradited from Djibouti to France.

Peter Cherif, also known by the pseudonym Abu Hamza, was a close friend of the two Kouachi brothers who killed 11 people at the magazine's Paris offices and a police officer nearby.

Mr Cherif, who was arrested a week ago in Djibouti, was taken into custody and charged upon his arrival on Sunday morning at Charles de Gaulle airport.

The minister for the armed forces, Florence Parly, on Friday said that his arrest was "very good news because this terrorist played an important role in organising the Charlie Hebdo attack."

Mr Cherif was linked to a Paris jihadist cell and was named in the enquiry into the attack on Charlie Hebdo in January 2015 over his regular contact with the perpetrators Said and Cherif Kouachi.

But he has not been indicted in connection with that attack. The preliminary charges against him are those of criminal association with a terrorist enterprise.