‘Charlie Hebdo’ To Reprint Muhammad Cartoons As Trial Linked To 2015 Attack Begins

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The work of French street artist Christian Guemy aka «C215 depicting members of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is painted on a facade near the magazine’s offices at Rue Nicolas Appert in Paris, to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the attack of the magazine that killed 12 people.

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Laurent «Riss Sourisseau, a French cartoonist and publishing director of Charlie Hebdo, attends the inauguration of an exhibitat the Duduchothèque, in Chalons-en-Champagne, northeastern France, in December 2018.

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Laurent «Riss Sourisseau, a French cartoonist and publishing director of Charlie Hebdo, attends the inauguration of an exhibitat the Duduchothèque, in Chalons-en-Champagne, northeastern France, in December 2018.

Francois Nascimbeni/AFP via Getty Images

Some of the cartoons, one of which depicts Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban, were first published in 2005 by a Danish newspaper and then reprinted by Charlie Hebdo the following year.

The cartoons sparked anger among many Muslims, not only for their unflattering portrayal of Muhammad but because many believe that visual depictions of him amount to blasphemy. They also accused the newspaper of branding all Muslims as terrorists.

On Tuesday, the French Council of the Muslim Faith tweeted: «The freedom to caricature and the freedom to dislike them are enshrined and nothing justifies violence.

In the attack on Jan. 7, 2015, brothers Chérif and Said Kouachi — armed with assault rifles, submachine guns, grenades and pistols — stormed the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris, killing 12 people, including cartoonists and other editorial staff. Nearly a dozen others were wounded. As the attackers left the scene, they reportedly shouted that they had «avenged the Prophet. Yemen-based Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the attack.

Years before, in 2011, the paper’s Paris offices had been firebombed.

Days after the 2015 attack, a third gunman, claiming allegiance to the Islamic State, attacked a Jewish market in Paris, killing several people and taking numerous hostages.

The Kouachi brothers and the kosher grocery gunman were subsequently killed in police raids.

The trial that begins on Wednesday involves 14 people who are alleged to have given logistically and material support to the attackers. They face between 10 years and life in prison if convicted.