Published 13:04 IST, September 2nd 2020
Charlie Hebdo attack accomplices face trial; Macron says 'won't condemn Muhammad cartoon'
The fourteen Islamist gunmen accused of helping the attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish store back in 2015, on September 2 face trial.
Advertisement
The fourteen Islamist gunmen accused of helping the attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish store on September 2, five years after the attack that sent shockwaves through France, face trial. According to reports, the defendants, three of whom will be tried in absentia and may be dead, face charges including financing terrorism, membership in a terrorist organisation and supplying weapons to the perpetrators. Back in 2015, the accused gunmen, in a series of attacks, had killed 17 people.
As per reports, the attack began on January 7, 2015, and it sparked a series of jihadist attacks on French soil, including ‘lone wolf’ killings by people said to be inspired by the Islamic State group that has since claimed over 250 lives. The horrifying attacks started with the Kouachi brothers going on a killing spree in the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, which is a French satirical weekly. The following day, Coulibaly, who was an acquaintance of Cherif Kouachi, reportedly killed a female police officer. On January 9, he then killed four Jewish men at a kosher supermarket and said that he acted in the name of Islamic State.
While the three assailants were killed by police, prosecutors reportedly said that they will be focusing on ‘little helpers’ suspected of providing weapons or organisational support. National anti-terror prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricardo reportedly said that it is about an individual who is involved in the logistics, the preparation of the events, who provided means of financing, operational material, weapons, a residence. Ricardo added that the relatives of the victims and others would testify.
Macron defends ‘freedom of blaspheme’
According to reports, Charlie Hebdo itself plans to republish the cartoons of Prophet Mohammed that spurred huge protests in many Arab countries and reportedly drove the accused gunmen to act. Back in 2015, after publishing the caricature, Al Qaeda’s Yemen branch also reportedly place Hebdo’s then-director on its ‘wanted list’.
While Charlie Hebdo’s director Laurent “Riss” Sourisseau wrote in an editorial published on Wednesday saying, “We will never lie down. We will never give up,” the publication also reportedly drew condemnation from Pakistan’s foreign ministry, which said that decision to again print the cartoons was ‘deeply offensive’. But the French President Emmanuel Macron defended the ‘freedom of blaspheme’ and also paid tribute to the victims of the attack.
Back in 2015, 17 people, including some of France’s most celebrated cartoonist, were gunned down. The three Islamist gunmen were killed when officers stormed the Jewish supermarket and the Charlie Hebdo office. The trial which begins on Wednesday was originally set for last spring, however, it was delayed by the coronavirus crisis that shut down most French courthouse.
Trial to run until November 10
According to reports, of the 14 suspects, three are being tried in absentia and other include Hayat Boumedienne, Coulibaly's girlfriend, and two brothers, Mohamed and Mehdi Belhoucine, all of whom fled for IS-controlled areas in Syria or Iraq just days before the attacks. The Belhoucine brothers were reportedly killed while fighting alongside IS, while the officials suspect the Boumedienne is on the run in Syria.
Mohamed Belhoucine and Ali Riza Polat, a French citizen of Turkish origin, reportedly face the most serious charges of complicity in a terrorist act, which carried a maximum sentence of life in jail. Polat is also thought to have become the ideological mentor of Coulibaly after meeting him in jail, opening channels of communication for him to IS. other suspects, on the other hand, are on trial for association with a terror group, a crime that comes with a prison sentence of up to 20 years. Furthermore, the trial is scheduled to run until November 10.
(Image: AP)
13:05 IST, September 2nd 2020