On the eve of the commemorations marking the tenth anniversary of the attack against Charlie Hebdo, a trial opens this Monday, January 6 before the juvenile court, for another terrorist attack that occurred in 2020 in front of the former premises of the satirical newspaper .
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The facts date back to September 25, 2020. That day, a young Pakistani man, Zaheer Mahmood, arrived on rue Nicolas Appert in Paris, armed with a butcher’s cleaver. He thinks he is in front of the premises of Charlie Hebdo. In reality, the newspaper moved five years earlier, after the attack of January 7, 2015 which decimated its editorial staff. The attacker was unaware of this information. At the foot of the building, two employees of the Premières Lignes agency are under a porch smoking a cigarette. Zaheer Mahmood attack with butcher’s leafat the level of the skull and neck. Both people are seriously injured.
The attacker later explained that he could not stand the publication of new caricatures of Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, in the columns of the satirical weekly. “ What I did was good. I feel better. I consider that they are well punished. We don’t make fun of religion », he will declare in police custody.
Six people facing justice, including the attacker
Now aged 29, Zaheer Mahmood will appear for “terrorist assassination attempts” and “criminal terrorist conspiracy”. He will not be alone in facing justice. The investigation carried out after the attack made it possible to identify five people who would have “ motivated and supported in his ideological process which has become a violent spiral “. The investigation demonstrated regular contacts between Zaheer Mahmood and these men, including the exchange of videos of sermons advocating beheading for blasphemers.
Like Zaheed Mahmood, the five alleged accomplices are Pakistani and arrived in France between 2018 and 2019. Three of them being minors at the time of the events, the trial is being held before the specially composed juvenile court, at behind closed doors. The debates could, however, be held in open court, as all the accused have since become adults. The decision will be made at the opening of the hearing.