[JURIST] Spain’s High Court [official website, in Spanish] on Thursday ordered an initial investigation of the time Amedy Coulibaly spent in Spain prior to the terrorist attacks in Paris last week. Coulibaly is one of the gunmen associated with the shooting of a policewoman and attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris that left four dead. He was reported to have spent time in Madrid with his wife and a third unidentified party in the time immediately preceding his return to Paris. Spanish authorities have launched the investigation in order to discover any sympathetic support cells that may have given aid to Coulibaly and the gunmen who perpetrated the attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo [BBC backgrounder]. They also seek to examine whether such a cell would have the ability to carry out a national attack, as the country fears an attack similar to the ones in France.

The Charlie Hebdo attack that left 12 dead and more injured has re-ignited the fear of terrorist attacks and the fight against them. Earlier this week the effects were still being felt in France as police arrested [JURIST report] 54 people for for verbally supporting or threatening terrorist acts. Also this week Turkey banned access [JURIST report] to the latest Charlie Hebdo cover because of its depiction of the Prophet Muhammad. Immediately following the attack last week, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned [JURIST report] the attack and expressed shock and appall at the terrorist actions. Other countries around the world have attempted to take legal action to curb fears of increasing extremism and terrorism. Last week Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain signed into law [JURIST report] anti-terrorism legislation that will establish military courts for the hearing of civilian terrorism related cases. This law is the latest in a series of anti-terrorism government efforts in the wake of the school massacre [JURIST report] by the Pakistani Taliban last month in Peshawar which killed 134 children along with 16 staff members. Also in January the High Court of Kenya [official website] suspended [JURIST report] eight sections of the controversial new anti-terrorism law until a legal challenge by the opposition is heard by the court.