Charlie Hebdo terror attacks: 14 found guilty of being accomplices

16 December 2020, 15:56 | Updated: 16 December 2020, 18:43

The 2015 Charlie Hebdo attacks left 17 dead
The 2015 Charlie Hebdo attacks left 17 dead. Picture: PA
Nick Hardinges

By Nick Hardinges

Fourteen people have been found guilty as accomplices to the Islamist gunmen who launched terror attacks against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket in 2015.

Three terrorists killed 17 people during two linked shootings that targeted the offices of the magazine on January 7, 2015 and a Jewish supermarket just days later.

On Wednesday, a court in France found 14 people guilty of having links to those gunmen, including Ali Riza Polat - accused of being central to the attack.

All three attackers, brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, plus Amedy Coulibaly, were killed during shootouts with the police.

12 people died when gunmen stormed the offices of the magazine in revenge for its publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

Another five people died in a separate attack on the supermarket a few days later.

Eleven of the people convicted were present in court for the verdict, while the remaining three were tried in absentia. Two of them were the fugitive widow of one of the gunmen and a man described as his logistician.

Read more: Two arrested following knife attack near former Charlie Hebdo offices

Read more: Terror investigation after knife attack near former Charlie Hebdo offices

Charlie Hebdo's lawyer, Richard Malka, welcomed the verdict
Charlie Hebdo's lawyer, Richard Malka, welcomed the verdict. Picture: PA Images

It ends the three-month trial of the group linked to the three days of killings across Paris claimed jointly by so-called Islamic State and al Qaeda.

Hayat Boumeddiene, the widow, fled to Syria after the attacks and is believed to still be alive, while two men who spirited her out of France, were also tried in absentia.

The other 11 men formed a circle of friends and prison acquaintances who claimed anything they may have had to do with the attack were less serious crimes such as armed robbery.

The trial was halted earlier this year when one of the men, Ali Riza Polat, caught coronavirus.

Watch: 'It's time to stand with Charlie Hebdo' - Maajid's passionate monologue

Watch: Charlie Hebdo was not 'witty satire they were simply gratuitous'

'It's time to stand with Charlie Hebdo' - Maajid Nawaz's powerful monologue on free speech

Described as the lieutenant of the virulently anti-Semitic market attacker Amedy Coulibaly, his profane outbursts and insults drew rebukes from the chief judge.

A handwriting expert testified it was Polat who scrawled a price list of arms and munitions linked to the attack - the minimum sentence requested by prosecutors is five years.

Among those giving evidence were the widows of Cherif and Said Kouachi, the brothers who stormed Charlie Hebdo's offices on January 7 2015, decimating the newspaper's editorial staff in what they said was an act of vengeance for its publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad years before.

The offices had been firebombed before and were unmarked, and editors had round the clock protection - but it was not enough.

More Latest News

See more More Latest News

Breaking
Warren Gatland who has quit Wales during the Six Nations

Wales rugby coach Warren Gatland quits mid Six Nations following record run of defeats

Park rangers are attempting to capture an estimated 20 feral pigs

Park rangers hunt for 20 feral pigs in Scottish Highlands following 'illegal release'

As many as six in 10 children in some areas have rotting teeth by the age of five

North-south divide as data shows amount of children with rotting teeth rising

The mother claimed her husband would find the weather too hot.

Mum avoids deportation to the Caribbean after claiming her husband doesn't like the food and the weather is too hot

Keane Perform At Manchester Apollo

Peter Kay breaks silence after kicking out hecklers who were 'spoiling the show' by shouting 'garlic bread'

Mark Rowley has slammed the decision by the High Court

Plans to kick ‘predators’ out of Met in tatters after High Court case, as police chief says force in 'hopeless position'

Devonte Aransibia

Tributes pour in as former Norwich City star dies aged just 26

Police at the scene of the stand-off in Sheffield

Flats evacuated in Sheffield as armed police confront man ‘with weapons’

d

Fears for Brit tourist Liam Hannigan, 34, missing for three days in Tenerife as desperate family say ‘phone was switched off’

See which countries get aid from the UK as Donald Trump axes US funding overseas.

Where does Britain send foreign aid? See which countries get aid from the UK as Donald Trump axes US funding overseas

A large police presence remains in place

Residents evacuated from Sheffield apartment block amid fears of man 'with weapons' in the building

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters as he signs executive orders in the Oval Office at the White House, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025, in Washington. (Photo/Alex Brandon)

UK 'not expected' to join EU in retaliating against Trump's 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium

A bouquet of chrysanthemums with a message, 'Don't be in pain and rest in peace,' is laid at an elementary school in the central city of Daejeon on Feb. 11, 2025.

Teacher admits to stabbing seven-year-old girl to death at school

Motley Crue's Vince Neil

Pilot dies as Motley Crue frontman's jet crashes into plane at Arizona airport

Exclusive
Bridget Phillipson has called for more British apprenticeships

UK must become 'less dependent' on foreign workers by training more British apprentices, minister warns LBC

Labour has deported nearly 19,000 people since coming to power

Inside Labour's deportation flights, as 19,000 illegal migrants removed from UK since July election