Charlie Hebdo Reprints Controversial 'Prophet Mohammed' Cartoons At Start Of Terror Trial

The announcement came on the eve of the first trial for the attacks against Charlie Hebdo.

(Photo by Thierry ZOCCOLAN / AFP)

Five years after the massive massacre in 2015, French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, which was the target of the Islamist gunmen, said it is republishing the controversial cartoons of Prophet Mohammed, declaring “history cannot be rewritten nor erased”. The announcement came on the eve of the first trial for the attacks against Charlie Hebdo. Hebdo director Laurent "Riss" Sourisseau wrote in an editorial to go with the republication of the cartoons in its latest edition ‘We will never lie down. We will never give up.’ In 2015, Islamist gunmen killed 11 people in the Paris office of the satirical magazine, before shooting dead a policeman outside. Those dead included some of France's most celebrated cartoonists. The perpetrators of the rampage were killed in the wake of the massacre but 14 alleged accomplices are to go on trial in Paris on Wednesday.

As per the reports, the latest cover of the magazine shows several cartoons that were first published by the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten in 2005 -- and then reprinted by Charlie Hebdo in 2006. These caricatures were the ones which irked the Muslims. The centre has the cartoon of the prophet over which the cartoonist Jean Cabut was killed in the shootout. "All of this, just for that," the front-page headline says. Seventeen people were killed over three days in and around the city after brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi massacred 12 people at the offices of the satirical paper, heralding a wave of Islamic attacks on French soil in the following years. After years of investigations, the trial was to open in May, but confinement rules imposed by authorities to slow the coronavirus outbreak prompted prosecutors to announce a delay last week. It is now to open on September 2 and run until November 10.