FOURTEEN alleged accomplices in the 2015 jihadist attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly and a Jewish supermarket go on trial next Wednesday more than half-a-decade after days of bloodshed that still shock France today.

The attacks heralded a wave of Islamist violence that left 258 people dead and raised unsettling questions about modern France’s ability to preserve security and harmony for a multicultural society.

Twelve people, including some of France’s most celebrated cartoonists, were killed on January 7, 2015, when brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi went on a gun rampage at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, whose no-taboo style, including hugely controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, had divided the country.

A day later, Amedy Coulibaly, a close acquaintance of Cherif Kouachi who he had met in prison, killed female police officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe, 27, during a routine traffic check in Montrouge, outside Paris.

On January 9 Coulibaly killed four men, all Jews, during a hostage-taking at the Hyper Cacher supermarket in the east of Paris. He recorded a video saying the attacks were coordinated and claimed them in the name of Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

Coulibaly was killed when police stormed the supermarket. The Kouachi brothers were themselves killed in the printers where they holed up in Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris.

While the three perpetrators are dead, suspects accused of providing them with various degrees of logistical support will finally face justice.

The trial had been delayed several months due to the coronavirus epidemic. The court in Paris will sit until November 10 and, in a first for a terror trial, proceedings will be filmed for archival purposes given public interest.

Helped at all stages

Of the 14 suspects, three are being tried in absentia: Hayat Boumedienne, the partner of Coulibaly, and the Belhoucine brothers Mohamed and Mehdi. All three are believed to have travelled to the area of northern Syria and Iraq that at the time was under IS control. Reports have suggested they are dead but this has never been confirmed and they remain subject to arrest warrants.

Facing the most serious charge of complicity in terror and a maximum sentence of life in jail, are Mohamed, the elder of the two brothers, and Ali Riza Polat, 35, a French citizen of Turkish origin who will be the most prominent of the accused in the dock.

Polat, seen as close to Coulibaly, is suspected of having played a central role in preparing the attacks, notably by helping to build up the arsenal used by the three perpetrators.

He is also accused of providing help “at all stages of the preparation”. Immediately after the attacks, he repeatedly tried to leave France for Syria but has been held since March 2015.

Mohamed is accused of being the ideological mentor of Coulibaly after meeting him in jail, opening up channels of communication for him to IS and writing the oath of allegiance that Coulibaly made to the group. 

Most of the other suspects are on trial for association with a terror group, a crime that comes with a jail sentence of up to 20 years. – AFP, August 27, 2020.