Trial of the January 2015 attacks. Charlie Hebdo still lives under high protection

Charlie Hebdo, it’s a life a bit apart , insists Fabrice Nicolino, economic journalist for the satirical weekly. He was present in the newsroom where ten people were killed, this January 7, 2015. I took three bullets in the skin, but I’m doing fine , sums up the man who had already experienced the attack on the Jewish cinema Rivoli, in Paris, on March 29, 1985. Two jihadist attacks, that’s a lot , he sighs, after putting his English cane on the ground to better testify standing. Five years after the massacre, he is still working on Charlie Hebdo.

It all started in 2006

However, the least we can write is that the oppressive and threatening atmosphere that reigns around the weekly is far from having disappeared today. When we get to Charlie Hebdo, there is a first mechanical door to go through. It leads to an airlock which leads to a second door , described Fabrice Nicolino. Without wishing to provide too much detail, the journalist brushes the security route that the employees and collaborators of the weekly must cross to reach the premises. Six doors in total, including one very, very thick. It’s full of overarmed cops . And once through the sixth gate, there we can sit at the table and start laughing . A panic room has also been fitted out in which you have to rush if you hear suspicious noises .

If security arrangements have been greatly strengthened since 2015, the weekly has in fact been living under protection for nearly fifteen years. The threats really started in 2006 when Charlie Hebdo published twelve cartoons of Muhammad, first published in 2005 in a Danish daily. Cabu had been protected for a few days. Charb a little longer. We discovered close protection , relates Laurent Sourisseau, the editorial director, better known under the pseudo Riss.

“Where are the freedom fighters”

In November 2011, following a new drawing on Muhammad, an arson destroyed the premises of the weekly. In 2013, the jihadist group al-Qaeda placed Charb on a list of personalities sought for crimes against islam . The previous year, he had published a comic strip on the life of Muhammad which, however, had elicited little reaction at the time.

However, at the end of 2014, the threats hovering around designers seem to be calming down. I even said to Charb: why are you keeping your protection? It is no longer useful… We always hope that things will get back to normal… recognizes Riss who says more innocent than victim . Innocent of having caricatured the prophet.

And to assert this right to freedom of expression, Charlie Hebdo who counts nearly 30,000 subscribers and which sells 25,000 to 30,000 copies in newsstands per week, republished before the current trial of the January 2015 attacks, the caricatures of Muhammad. Since, threats are raining again , laments Me Richard Malka, lawyer for the weekly.

Riss and Fabrice Nicolino do they regret having published these drawings, asks a lawyer. What I regret is that there aren’t more people to defend this freedom , Riss answers. In 2020, in the heart of Paris, a newspaper is under siege. But where are the freedom fighters? gets angry Fabrice Nicolino.

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