Paris, March 14 (IANS): The Paris prosecutor's office on Friday announced that two men have been placed under formal investigation for suspected links with Amedy Coulibaly -- the gunman who killed five people in Paris in January.

The two suspects were accused of "participating in a terrorist criminal association to commit crimes against people", Xinhua reported citing the prosecutor's office.

According to the French prosecutor, one of the suspects, Amar, exchanged 600 messages over the course of four months with Coulibaly, who shot dead a policewoman and killed four people in a kosher grocery store in two separate attacks in Paris in January.

The second suspect, Said, 25, was arrested after his DNA was found on a taser left by the gunman in the kosher grocery store.

Speaking to the BFMTV news channel, Amar's lawyer said that the 33-year-old Frenchman of Algerian descent was "a normal Muslim who has nothing to do with terrorism and Islamism".

On January 21, four suspects aged 22 to 28, were placed under formal investigation and charged with helping Coulibaly prepare his attack on the kosher store.

Coulibaly, who claimed to be linked to the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, died in a subsequent shootout with police.

His attacks came after two Islamist gunmen attacked the office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which had been controversial for its unfavourable portrayals of Prophet Muhammad. The attack on Charlie Hebdo left 12 people dead. The two gunmen were killed later by the police.