14 suspects face trial over Paris magazine attack

FE Team | Published: September 02, 2020 22:04:48

Tight security and strict hygiene conditions have been put in place for Wednesday's trial — BBC

PARIS, Sept 02 (BBC): Fourteen people are on trial in France over the deadly attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo more than five years ago.
Most of the alleged accomplices are in court in Paris, but three are being tried in absentia.
They are accused of helping the militant Islamist attackers who shot dead 12 people in and around Charlie Hebdo's Paris office in January 2015.
A third gunman shot dead a policewoman and attacked a Jewish supermarket.
In total, 17 people were killed in a period of just three days. The killings marked the beginning of a wave of jihadist attacks across France that left more than 250 people dead.
In the days following the attacks, millions of people took part in solidarity marches across France and around the world under the slogan "Je suis Charlie" (I am Charlie).
The magazine has marked the start of the trial by reprinting controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that sparked protests in several Muslim countries. President Emmanuel Macron has since defended the freedom of the press and the French "freedom to blaspheme, which is linked to freedom of conscience".
Eleven of the defendants were present in the courtroom on Wednesday. They gave their names and occupations, and all confirmed they intended to answer questions from the court.
The trial has been delayed by almost four months because of the coronavirus pandemic. In March, the presiding judge said France's lockdown measures had made it impossible to bring together "all the parties, witnesses and experts under the necessary sanitary conditions".
The alleged accomplices are accused of obtaining weapons and providing logistical support for the attack on Charlie Hebdo's office on 7 January 2015, as well as the subsequent attacks on a police officer and the Hyper Cacher supermarket.