French anti-terrorism investigating judges ordered this Monday, March 25, a trial for six men in the case of the chopper attack in 2020 by a young Pakistani in front of the former premises of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris. This was confirmed to RFI by the national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office, whose requisitions were followed. A seventh man, aged 52, benefited from a dismissal of the charges.
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On September 25, 2020, Zaheer Mahmoud, a Pakistani then aged 25, seriously injured two employees of the Premières Lignes press agency with a chopper, in front of the former locals of Charlie Hebdo in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. He didn’t know the newspaper had moved.
For this attack, he will be tried, in particular, for attempted terrorist assassinations and criminal terrorist association. A trial which will be held before the specially composed juvenile court, since the five people prosecuted alongside him were aged between 17 and 21 at the time of the events, and therefore minors for some.
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These five men, all born in Pakistan and arrived in France between 2018 and 2019, will be prosecuted for terrorist conspiracy: according to the anti-terrorism prosecution, this charge covers both support for Zaheer Mahmoud in his ideological process, as well as production and transmission at his request of a video of threats against France, and/or participation in claiming responsibility for the attack, or even the communication of contact details of an individual likely to provide him with a weapon.
A “carefully prepared” gesture according to the magistrates
The attack took place three weeks after the start of the trial of the attacks against Charlie Hebdo of January 2015. Before an investigating judge, Zaheer Mahmoud declared, according to Agence France-Presse, to have been “ shocked » by the new publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad by the satirical newspaper, on the occasion, precisely, of the opening of the trial.
In their indictment order, of which the AFP was also aware, the investigating magistrates consider that his “ gesture was carefully prepared by several locations at the scene of the events and by the purchase in particular of weapons », including the chopper. Moreover, ” before acting, he took care to record a protest video and ensure its broadcast at the end, with the obvious objective of guaranteeing its impact, in a context of repeated calls for murder broadcast particularly from abroad by several preachers and terrorist organizations, particularly in Pakistan », they add.
“ We will not comment, we reserve our explanations for the court », Declared to Agence France-Presse his lawyers, Me Maïa Kantor and Albéric de Gayardon.
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