- Title: Charlie Hebdo office was a "war zone," former terrorism prosecutor recalls
- Date: 31st August 2020
- Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (AUGUST 27, 2020) (REUTERS) CHARLIE HEBDO ISSUES, ONE PARTIALLY SHOWING CARICATURE OF FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON IN PROTECTIVE SUIT, WITH HEADLINE THAT READS (French) "MACRON REASSURES THE FRENCH PEOPLE" CHARLIE HEBDO ISSUES CHARLIE HEBDO FRONT PAGES, INCLUDING LATEST ISSUE SHOWING OF CARICATURE OF STUDENTS IN MASKS, WITH COFFINS AS BACKPACKS, AND HEADLINE THAT READS (French) "WILL THEY FINISH THE SCHOOL YEAR?"
- Embargoed: 14th September 2020 18:24
- Keywords: Amedy Coulibaly Charlie Hebdo trial Hyper Cacher Kouachi brothers Mollins former prosecutor militant attacks police terrorism
- Location: PARIS, DAMMARTIN-EN-GOELE AND UNKNOWN LOCATION, FRANCE
- City: PARIS, DAMMARTIN-EN-GOELE AND UNKNOWN LOCATION, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Europe,France,International/National Security
- Reuters ID: LVA001CTKYQTJ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Fourteen suspected accomplices to the French Islamist militants behind the 2015 attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and a Jewish supermarket in Paris will go on trial on Wednesday (September 2).
Seventeen people were killed during three days of bloodshed that marked the beginning of a wave of Islamist violence that was to leave scores more dead.
Former prosecutor of Paris's terrorism court, Francois Molins, who was one of the first on the crime scene, recalled seeing "carnage" at the Charlie Hebdo office, which he described as resembling a "war zone" with bodies piled up against each other.
On Jan. 7, 2015, brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi went on a gun rampage in the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a weekly whose cartoons on race, religion and politics tested the limits of what society would accept in the name of free speech. They killed 12 people.
The following day, Amedy Coulibaly, an acquaintance of Cherif Kouachi, killed a female police officer in Montrouge, a Paris suburb. On Jan. 9, he killed four Jewish men at a kosher supermarket in eastern Paris.
Police were able to establish that Coulibaly was also the assailant of the police officer in Montrouge due to DNA found on a strand of hair left on a balaclava, found near the shooting site.
The three attackers were killed by police in separate standoffs.
In a video recording, Coulibaly said the attacks were coordinated and carried out in the name of Islamic State. The Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabic Peninsula claimed the alleged accomplices have been charged with crimes including supplying weapons, membership of a terrorist organization and financing terrorism.
Of the 14 defendants, three will be tried in absentia and may be dead. Hayat Boumedienne, Coulibaly's partner at the time of the attack, and brothers Mohamed and Mehdi Belhoucine are believed to have travelled to areas of Syria under the control of Islamic State just before the attacks.
"The courts have a duty of truth and reparations towards the victims," Molins said.
Among those in the dock will be Ali Riza Polat who investigators allege helped the three attackers amass their weapons and munitions. He faces life in jail if found guilty.
The trial will be the first terrorism-related court procedure in France to be filmed, for historical archives.
The killings sparked global outrage against attacks on freedom of the press, with sympathisers embracing the slogan "Je suis Charlie" (I am Charlie).
Days after the attack, world leaders joined then French President Francois Hollande in a march for solidarity.
(Production: Michaela Cabrera, Clotaire Achi) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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