New death threats against Charlie Hebdo, one year after office massacre

FRENCH police are investigating death threats against surviving cartoonists and journalists at Charlie Hebdo – the satirical magazine targeted by Islamists in January last year.

The Paris prosecutor launched the inquiry last week following several specific messages left on Charlie Heb

do’s Facebook page this month. At the same time, the magazine, which lost its editor and star cartoonists when Islamist brothers Chérif and Said Kouachi gunned down 12 people at its offices, received a hand-written note with threats at its new address.

According to Le Parisien, these

“clearly mentioned wanting to physically attack the journalists of Charlie Hebdo”.

“These threats were received in a pretty short space of time, over three or four days in mid-June. There is notably the intention of killing, once again, several members of the editorial team,” a source close to the inquiry told the pa- per. Another source said that the magazine had not received this type of threat “for some time”. Islamists stormed the Paris office of

Charlie Hebdo on January 7, 2015, killing 12 people in response to cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, which they deemed “blasphemous”.

Video footage on social media showed the gunmen escaping and shouting “Allahu Akbar”.

Two days later four hostages were killed at a kosher grocery shop in the French capital after fleeing gunmen launched a siege. Al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen claimed responsibility.

The deaths sparked a huge tribute march and 7.5 million people bought the first issue after the attacks while 200,000 signed up for a subscription.

Some of the surviving team have subsequently quit citing stress, while there have been rows over who should pocket the millions in donations it has received. Two widows of victims have said that security was woefully inadequate in the run-up to the attack.