PARIS, France — French politicians on Saturday paid tribute to Charlie Hebdo staff and other victims of the January 2015 Islamist attacks, days after the latest edition of the satirical weekly sparked outrage in Iran.
French President Emmanuel Macron has tweeted the names of the 17 victims of a series of attacks eight years ago in and around Paris, including the 12 people killed at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo.
They were killed on January 7, 2015 by brothers Said and Sherif Kouachi, who said they were acting on behalf of al-Qaeda to avenge the newspaper’s decision to publish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
A day later, Amedy Coulibaly killed a 27-year-old police officer during a traffic stop outside Paris, before killing four Jewish men during a hostage situation at the Hyper Cacher supermarket on January 9, claiming to act at the name of Islam State Terrorist Group.
All three were killed by police, and in December 2020 a French court convicted 14 people of helping carry out the attacks.
“We will never forget you,” Macron tweeted on Saturday, with a caricature by famous French cartoonist Plantu below.
Cabu
Wolinsky
Sharp
Tignous
Honored
Bernard Maris
Elsa Kayat
Frédéric Boisseau
Frank Brinsolaro
Ahmed Merabet
Mustapha Ourrad
Michael Renaud
Clarisse Jean-Philippe
Philip Braham
Yohan Cohen
Yoav Hattab
Francois Michel SaadaWe don’t have many ever. pic.twitter.com/l2CnUgFnVf
—Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) January 7, 2023
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne also marked the anniversary of the attacks, which also involved a deadly siege at a kosher supermarket, in which four Jewish victims were killed.
“Faced with Islamist terrorism, the Republic remains standing,” she tweeted. “For their families, for our values, for our freedom: we do not forget.”
And Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak tweeted: “Satire, irreverence, the republican tradition of hurried caricatures are intrinsic to our democracy. We continue to defend them.
A policeman stands guard near a drawing detecting eleven of the victims before a ceremony marking the eighth anniversary of the jihadist attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo which killed 12 people in Paris, January 7, 2023. (Geoffroy Van der Hasselt / AFP)
The tributes came days after Tehran reacted furiously to cartoons mocking Iranian leadership in the latest issue of Charlie Hebdo, which appeared on Wednesday.
The magazine had invited cartoonists to portray Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei amid ongoing protests against his theocratic rule, particularly by women.
Graphic coverage sought to highlight the fight for women’s rights, while others were sexually explicit and insulting to Khamenei and his religious colleagues.
Numerous cartoons highlighted the authorities’ use of the death penalty as a tactic to quell protests.
Tehran’s anger
In response, Iran summoned the French ambassador and called on the government to hold “the perpetrators of such hatred” to account.
On Thursday, he announced the closure of the French Research Institute (IFRI) based in Tehran.
“France has no right to insult the sanctity of other Muslim countries and nations under the pretext of freedom of expression,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said.
In Paris on Saturday, Interior Minister Gérard Darmanin and the city’s mayor Anne Hidalgo were among the politicians who attended a ceremony at the former Charlie Hebdo offices in the city’s 11th arrondissement.
It was there that two gunmen killed the magazine’s staff, including some of its best-known cartoonists.
Gunmen confront police officers near the offices of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris on January 7, 2015, during an attack on the newspaper’s offices that left 12 people dead, including two police officers. (Photo credit: AFP/ANNE GELBARD)
A few meters further down the same street, police lieutenant Ahmed Merabet was shot dead by the killers as he tried to prevent their escape.
The gunmen, who claimed to represent Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), said they were taking revenge on previous satirical cartoons in the magazine depicting the Prophet Muhammad. They were killed after two days on the run.
Republican guards stand outside the Hyper Cacher supermarket before a ceremony marking the second anniversary of the deadly attack on the store in Paris on January 5, 2017. (Christophe Archambault/AFP)
The day after the Charlie Hebdo attack, another Islamist gunman killed a policeman in Montrouge, just outside Paris – and a day later he killed four hostages in a kosher supermarket in eastern Paris .
He was shot as police stormed the premises and freed the remaining hostages.
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