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Defendants Accused of Aiding Islamist Extremists Who Killed 12 People in January 2015in Charlie Hebdo’s Paris newsroom. A third terrorist shot and killed a female police officer and also attacked a Jewish business. The killings were perpetrated by a total of three terrorists, all three of whom were shot to death by commandos on January 9. In a three-day manhunt that began on January 7, 17 people were killed by jihadists. The attempted assassination of Charlie Hebdo was the beginning of a wave of Islamist terrorist acts in 2015, with 250 victims across France.
Photo: Charles Platiau / Reuters
A start of negotiations
Of the 14 defendants, 11 were present in a Paris court. They all provided their personal data to the court and agreed that they would answer questions from the prosecution.
The trial, originally scheduled for May 2020, had to be postponed for nearly four months in March due to the coronavirus. In March, the presiding judge declared that the curfew and other epidemiological measures introduced by France had made it impossible for all parts of the court, witnesses and experts to meet in one place.
The alleged accomplices are accused of providing weapons and logistical assistance. The three missing suspects are believed to be hiding in northern Syria and Iraq, and their complicity will be tried in their absence. According to some reports, the three missing defendants were killed in the Islamic State bombing, but this has not been officially confirmed by anyone.
The number of plaintiffs is around 200. All survivors are expected to testify.
Charlie Hebdo magazine scheduled a reissue of its cartoons of the former Prophet Muhammad at the start of the trial. The cartoons have sparked protests in several Muslim countries. In response to the protests, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke in his statements in favor of the right to freedom of expression and defended the right of the French to blasphemy, which he said stems from the right to be convicted.
(BBC)
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