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CHARLIE HEBDO

Charlie Hebdo coming to Denmark

300 copies of the magazine's 'survivor's edition', which features a new caricature of the prophet Muhammad will be released in Denmark.

Published: 13 January 2015 14:42 CET
Charlie Hebdo coming to Denmark
People in Copenhagen hold a vigil in support of Charlie Hebdo on January 8th. The magazine's 'survivor edition' will hit Danish shelves this week. Photo: Niels Ahlmann Olesen/Scanpix
A limited run of 300 copies of the first edition of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo since its staff were murderously attacked by Islamist gunmen last week will be released in Denmark. 
 
Magazine distribution company Bladkompagniet has confirmed that the new edition, which shows a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad crying and holding up a "Je suis Charlie" sign under the words: "All is forgiven", will be available on Danish shelves. 
 
"We have ordered 300 copies, which we expect will hit magazine stores in Denmark either during the day Thursday or Friday morning at the latest," Bladkompagniet's CEO Christian Lanng told Berlingske. 
 
Langg said that if the 300 copies are all sold, the company would order more to meet demand. 
 
The front page of this week's Charlie Hebdo was released to media ahead of the magazine's publication on Wednesday, which The Local has decided not to reprint. Three million copies of the special "survivors' edition" are being printed and will be made available in 25 countries, translated into 16 languages because of international demand.
 
Worldwide sympathy and "Je Suis Charlie" solidarity rose up around Charlie Hebdo in the wake of the attack against it last Wednesday, in which 12 people were killed including five of its top cartoonists.
 
But the magazine's fresh caricature of Muhammad could renew fury by some extremely devout Muslims who believe it is forbidden to depict their prophet in any way.
 
The two gunmen who attacked Charlie Hebdo's offices in Paris last Wednesday said as they left the scene that they had "avenged the Prophet Muhammad".
 
The staff first started receiving death threats in 2006 when they republished cartoons by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten that had triggered violent riots in some Muslim countries.
 
The offices of the weekly were firebombed by suspected Islamists in 2011 when it published other cartoons making fun of Muhammad, causing no injuries.
 
The surviving employees of Charlie Hebdo have sworn to uphold its tradition of lampooning all religions, politicians, celebrities and news events. Islamic extremists have often been ridiculed in its pages through provocative and irreverent cartoons.
 
We will "cede nothing" to extremists seeking to silence them, the publication's lawyer, Richard Malka, told French radio on Monday.
 
"In each edition for the past 22 years there has not been one where there have not been caricatures of the pope, Jesus, priests, rabbis, imams ou Mohammed," he said.
 
It would have been "surprising" if a Mohammed cartoon did not feature in the new issue, he said.
 
He stressed that Charlie Hebdo saw itself as "not a violent newspaper but an irreverent one".
 
To limit the overwhelming burden on our moderators, it will not be possible to comment on this article. Feel free to join the conversation on our Facebook page.
 

TERRORISM

Charlie Hebdo terror attacks: French court jails accomplices

A Paris court on Wednesday handed jail terms ranging from four years to life to more than a dozen people convicted of helping Islamist gunmen who attacked satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and customers at a Jewish supermarket in January 2015.

Published: 16 December 2020 17:53 CET
Updated: 16 December 2020 23:23 CET
Charlie Hebdo terror attacks: French court jails accomplices
Court sketches of the 14 accused. Photo: AFP

Survivors and family members of the dead sat in silence as the verdicts were read out, which they hailed afterwards as a victory for justice and freedom of speech after a sometimes traumatic trial that revived the horror of the killings.

The editor of Charlie Hebdo Laurent “Riss” Sourisseau, who lives under round-the-clock police protection, was also in court to hear the sentencing by a five-member team of magistrates who had listened to evidence against the accused over three months. 

“It's been painful, searing. It's been a stage in our mourning process, necessary and unavoidable,” said a lawyer for Charlie Hebdo, Richard Malka. “I hope it's the start of something else, of an awareness, a wake up call.” 

In the absence of the attackers themselves — all three were killed by security forces in the days after their rampage — French investigators instead focused on accomplices to the men, including their weapon suppliers.

The main accused, Ali Riza Polat, was judged to have known about his friend Amedy Coulibaly's plans to take part in the attacks, and was given a 30-year sentence for complicity, which he immediately said he would appeal.

Another 10 accused were present in court, all men ranging from 29 to 68 years old with prior criminal records but no terror convictions. They were all found guilty on a range of charges.

In all, 13 sentences were handed down, including to two accused who were tried in absentia: Hayat Boumeddiene, the partner of gunman Coulibaly, received a 30-year sentence, while Mohamed Belhoucine, a known Islamic extremist, was handed a life term.

Both of them are presumed to be in Syria and may be dead.

A fourteenth suspect was not sentenced because he was convicted in a separate terror trial earlier this year and is thought to dead. 

'Freedom has last word' 

During the attacks in January 2015, seventeen people were killed over three days, beginning with the massacre of 12 people at Charlie Hebdo magazine by brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi.

They said they were acting on behalf of Al-Qaeda to avenge Charlie Hebdo's decision to publish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, while Coulibaly had sworn loyalty to the Islamic State group.

Coulibaly was responsible for the murder of a French policewoman and a hostage-taking at a Hyper Cacher market in which four Jewish men were killed.

Those shot dead in the Charlie Hebdo office included some of France's most celebrated cartoonists such as Jean Cabut, known as Cabu, 76, Georges Wolinski, 80, and Stephane “Charb” Charbonnier, 47.

To mark the start of the trial on September 2, the fiercely anti-religion magazine defiantly republished the prophet cartoons, leading to a fresh violence and protests against France in many Muslim countries.

Three weeks later, a Pakistani man wounded two people outside the magazine's former offices, hacking at them with a cleaver.

On October 16, a young Chechen refugee beheaded teacher Samuel Paty who had showed some of the caricatures to his pupils.

And on October 29, three people were killed when a young Tunisian recently arrived in Europe went on a stabbing spree in a church in the Mediterranean city of Nice.

President Emmanuel Macron's government has introduced legislation to tackle radical Islamist activity in France, a bill that has stirred anger in some Muslim countries.

On the cover of its new issue published before the verdicts, Charlie Hebdo in typically provocative style published a picture of God being led away in a police van with the title “God put in his place”.

“The cycle of violence, which had began in the offices of Charlie Hebdo, will finally be closed,” editor Riss, who was badly injured in the attacks, wrote in an editorial.

“At least from the perspective of criminal law, because from a human one, the consequences will never be erased,,” he added.

'Thanks to justice' 

The Charlie Hebdo killings triggered a global outpouring of solidarity with France under the “I am Charlie” slogan and signalled the start of a wave of Islamist attacks around Europe.

Later that year, in November 2015, Paris was again besieged when Islamist gunmen went on the rampage at the Bataclan concert hall, the national stadium and at a host of bars and restaurants.

A trial of the only surviving gunman and suspected accomplices is expected to start in September next year. 

Christophe Deloire, the head of press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF), said he welcomed the verdict in court on Wednesday.

“It is proof that violent extremists don't have the last word. Thanks to justice, it is freedom that has the last word,” he wrote on Twitter.

Patrick Klugman, lawyer for the victims at Hyper Cacher, said: “For most of the victims… I believe that they have feeling of having been heard.”

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