The trial of a man who attacked two people in 2020 outside the former offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, as well as five other people, opened today in a special juvenile court in Paris, France.
The court, composed entirely of professional magistrates, rejected a request by several defense lawyers to hold the hearings in camera, because three of the accused were minors at the time of the events.
The trial is scheduled to last until January 24.
The attack took place on September 25, 2020, during the proceedings of the January 2015 attacks that mainly targeted the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris. The weekly had been the target of new threats after republishing the cartoons of Muhammad.
The six defendants, two of whom are free under judicial supervision, all hail from the same rural region of Pakistan and arrived in France between 2018 and 2019.
The attacker, Zaheer Mahmood, who turns 30 on January 25, is facing charges of attempted terrorist murder and terrorist conspiracy.
The other defendants are being prosecuted for participation in a terrorist conspiracy.
At around 11:40 a.m. (local time, 9:40 a.m. in Lisbon) on September 25, 2020, Zaheer Mahmood arrived in front of a building on rue Nicolas-Appert in Paris armed with a chopper and seriously injured two employees of the Premières Lignes agency, who were under the awning smoking a cigarette.
The two victims, a 28-year-old woman and a 32-year-old man, suffered serious injuries to the head and face.
Zaheer Mahmood thought he was attacking Charlie Hebdo staff, unaware that the newspaper had left the premises after the 2015 attack.
"What I did was good. I feel better. I think they are being punished. We do not make fun of religion," Mahmood said in police custody.
Zaheer Mahmood explained his actions by the anger he felt over the new publication of the cartoons of Mohammed. This publication led to demonstrations in Muslim countries, including Pakistan.
Searches and analyses of the numerous telephones and computer equipment found in Mahmood's home identified five people who allegedly "motivated and supported him in his ideological process that turned into a violent spiral."
The investigation revealed regular contacts between Zaheer Mahmood and these men, including the exchange of videos of sermons advocating the beheading of blasphemers.
On 7 January 2015, 12 people were killed in attacks carried out by the Kouachi brothers, two Frenchmen who had sworn allegiance to Al-Qaeda. Among them were eight members of the newspaper's editorial staff: designers Cabu, Charb, Honoré, Tignous and Wolinski, psychoanalyst Elsa Cayat, economist Bernard Maris and proofreader Mustapha Ourrad.
Charlie Hebdo will publish a special issue on Tuesday, marking the 10th anniversary of the attack, with around 40 cartoons.
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