On Wednesday afternoon, the verdicts fell on those accused of aiding and abetting terrorist acts in the notorious Charlie Hebdo trial.
The author and former Charlie Hebdo writer Marie Darrieussecq has followed all the trial days and says that the trial itself affects her more than the verdict.
- Personally, I am more interested in the lost human lives than those who received their sentence today.
It feels irrelevant to talk about facts, such as the fact that it cost 12,000 euros for terrorists' weapons and travel, when the loss of life is invaluable, she says.
Wrote for Charlie Hebdo
Marie Darrieussecq made her debut and broke through in 1996 with the novel Suggestions.
The book was translated into over thirty languages.
After the terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015, she started writing for Charlie Hebdo to support the newspaper and freedom of expression in the country.
- I wrote for Charlie Hebdo regularly for two and a half years, but I could never get used to the bunker we were forced to work in, she says.
She says she was always scared and still upset that journalists need to work with armed guards next to them.
- Security is much higher than at an airport.
Eventually my fears took over and I stopped writing for the newspaper.
"There is no end"
Marie Darrieussecq's own writing has not been directly affected by the terrorist attack in 2015 because she does not write about religion herself, but she has become aware of the risks of writing about this.
- Self-censorship has not affected me because I write about other things than religion, but I experience a tense atmosphere in the country and know that it can be dangerous to talk about religion in France today.
Do you think that today's verdict will be seen as an end to the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo in 2015?
- No, there is no end to this.
It is a collective trauma for the whole world, she says.