“In memory of the victims of the terror attack against freedom of expression perpetrated at the offices of Charlie Hebdo on 7 January 2015″, the inscription reads, before listing those killed.
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(AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File). “On that day, the executioner showed us that he had decided we were all Jewish”.
President Barack Obama is making good on his pledge to politicize gun violence.
Hollande, flanked by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, inaugurated the first plaque at Charlie Hebdo’s former offices, where cartoonists who were household names in France, nicknamed Cabu, Wolinski and Charb, were killed along with nine others.
The ceremonies Tuesday come as Charlie Hebdo is releasing a special anniversary issue laced with obscene and offensive cartoons, its surviving artists and columnists vaunting their freedom to lampoon everyone from Muslim fundamentalists to children, politicians and Catholic priests.
Both spoke as France marks a year since Islamic extremists targeted Charlie Hebdo and a kosher market January 7-9, killing 17 people.
They also paid homage to the Muslim police officer murdered as he chased the gunmen, with “Je suis Ahmed” sprayed on the pavement in red, white and blue.
While commemorative plaques will be unveiled on Tuesday at the various sites of the January attacks, French rock giant Johnny Hallyday will pay tribute to the millions who marched on the streets of French cities in support of “Charlie”, by performing a song called “A Sunday in January” on the Sunday following the January attacks.
They went on to unveil a third plaque at the Hyper Cacher, a kosher supermarket in an eastern suburb where four Jews – three shoppers and an employee – were killed during a horrifying hostage drama.
Another Charlie Hebdo widow, Ingrid Brinsolaro, has filed a lawsuit claiming that her husband, a police bodyguard, was left vulnerable because of inadequate security at the newspaper’s offices. Cazeneuve cited that France had thwarted six attacks since the Charlie Hebdo assault, dismantling 18 recruitment networks and arresting 11 groups planning further attacks.
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The country remains under a state of emergency after November 13 attacks that killed 130 people, and extra security was on hand for Tuesday’s commemorations.
