Inside the £40-a-night Turkish hotel room Paris rampage terror wife fled to – and it has Eiffel Tower on the wall
Hayat Boumeddiene arrived in the Turkish city of Istanbul just days before 17 innocent people were massacred in Paris.
The 26-year-old is believed to have helped mastermind the plot, which saw her husband Amedy Coulibaly shoot dead a policewoman and execute four hostages at a Jewish-owned deli.
Coulibaly, 32, was in the same terror cell as the Kouachi brothers - Cherif, 32, and Said, 34 - who killed 12 at the Charlie Hebdo magazine offices.
Police are now on the hunt for Boumeddiene who is believed to have joined Islamic State fighters in Syria.
Last night it was revealed that Turkish authorities were questioning a number of people who helped smuggle Boumeddiene across the border.
The jihadi widow checked into the no-frills Bade Otel in Kadikoy, on the Asian side of the city, on January 2 after flying into Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen airport. For two nights Boumeddiene, who has been described as armed and dangerous, slept in room 102 – where a picture of the Eiffel Tower hangs above the bed.
The basic room comes with a shabby bathroom, a TV, a double and single bed.
Mehdi Sabri Belhoucin, a 32-year-old on the intelligent services’ watch list who travelled with her, slept in the room next door at the €38 a night hotel.
The pair reportedly only left the run-down hotel to buy a mobile phone and a sim card, and to visit a local restaurant.
One worker, who did not want to be identified, said: ‘She hardly left the room. They only left twice.
‘When they checked in they both handed over their passports which were photocopied.
‘The police took those and the CCTV hard drive. We can't say any more about it.’
The CCTV might also help police trace the whereabouts of four suspected ISIS handlers she met up with during her travels across Turkey.
Boumeddiene is said to have met two Turkish nationals in Istanbul, and another two in the southern city of Sanliurfa where she took a domestic flight to on January 4.
Turkish media have reported that her whereabouts from January 5 to January 7 are unclear, but her phone signal was picked up in Akcakale, a town on the Syrian border, on January 8.
Her last phone signal inside Turkey was picked up in this town on the same day that Coulibaly murdered a policewoman in the south of Paris.
It is believed that she then crossed into Syria’s Raqqa province, to the ISIS-controlled town of Tel Abyad, by illegal means.
The last recorded call from her Turkish mobile phone was picked up here on January 10 – the day after her partner was killed when the French security services stormed a kosher supermarket where he was holding 19 hostages.
Analysing her mobile phone data the Turkish authorities have learned she made 18 calls from Turkey to France.
It is believed her handlers have been identified but it is unclear if they have been arrested.
The Turkish authorities have criticised France for their lack of cooperation.
They claim they provided Paris with information relating to Boumeddiene’s whereabouts – but the French authorities thought she was inside the kosher store with Coulibaly.