Fourteen go on trial over Charlie Hebdo 2015 newspaper attacks
● Most of the accused believed they were planning an ordinary crime
Thirteen men and a woman went on trial yesterday over the 2015 attacks against the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper and a kosher supermarket in Paris that marked the beginning of a wave of violence by the Islamic State (IS) group in Europe.
Seven teen people and all three gun men died during the three days of attacks in January 2015. Later that year, a separate network of French and Belgian fighters for Islamic States truck Paris again, this time killing 130 people in attacks at the Bataclan concert hall, the national stadium, and in bars and restaurants.
Those on trial in France’ s terrorism court are accused of buying weapons, cars, and helping with logistics in the January 2015 attacks. Most say they thought they were helping plan an ordinary crime. Three, including the only woman accused, are being tried in absentia after leaving to join IS.
“The trial will establish and confirm that the two attacks were co-ordinated ,” Francois Hollande, who was then France’s president, told RTL radio. “One was an attack on freedom of expression and the other was against Jews because they were Jews.”
The attacks from 7 to 29 January 2015 started during an editorial meeting at Charlie Hebdo, whose offices had been unmarked and guarded by police since the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad years before. Brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi gunned down 12 people before carjacking a vehicle and fleeing. They claimed the attacks in the name of alQaida.
Two days later, on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath, Amedy Coulibaly stormed the Hyper Cacher supermarket, killing four hostages and invoking the IS group as the Kouachi brothers took control of a printing office outside the French capital. The attackers died that day during near-simultane- -ous police raids.
It took days more for investigators to realise that Coulibaly was also responsible for the seemingly random death of a young policewoman the previous day.
It took further weeks to unravel the network of petty criminal sand neighbourhood friends linking the three attackers. By then, Hayat Boumedienne, who was married to Coulibaly, had left for Syria with the help of two brothers also charged in the case. Most of the 11 who will appear insist their help in the mass killings was unwitting.
“Since 2012, terrorism capitalised on the prevailing delinquency there is around these terrorists,” said Samia Maktouf, a lawyer for one of the att ack sur vivors. “The y are not second fiddles, they are full accomplices.”
Despite a global outpouring of suppor t, the attacks were also seen as a massive intelligence failure. French authorities ended a phone tap on one of the Kouachi brothers a few months before they stormed the editorial offices. At least one had trained with al-qaida in Yemen and been convicted of an earlier terrorism offense.
The brothers walked away from the carnage they had caused, escaping easily and drove through multiple dragnets before being trapped two days later.
“The government failed. If the intelligence services had done their job, this would not have happened,” said Isabelle Coutant-peyre, lawyer for the only defendant in court facing a life term. “The victims don’t just want a guilty verdict, but real justice. The truth must come out.”
The chief judge declined to rule on C out ant-P eyre’ s request for a delay in the trial to learn more about the sale of the weapons to the Kouachi brothers and Coulibaly. Investigators never determined who sold the weapons.
Her client, Ali Riza Polat, is accused of serving as the link between the Kouachi brothers and Cou lib aly. He was involved in each stage of the attack planning, according to the judicial investigation.