"Charlie Hebdo": the three women of Charb at the helm
Stéphane Charbonnier, alias Charb, director of “Charlie Hebdo”, September 19, 2012. REUTERS / Jacky Naegelen / Files
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3 min
Designated as a target by Al-Qaeda, Charb, whose real name is Stéphane Charbonnier, publishing director of Charlie Hebdo, is the only one that the Kouachi brothers have specifically sought.
At the helm for him yesterday, three women: his mother Denise, Valérie Martinez his "lover" as she calls herself, and Marika Bret, HR director of the newspaper and his "intimate for 15 years".
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With our special correspondent at the courthouse,
Laura Martel
Drawings of Charb projected on screen, and the audience laughs, including some of the accused.
So many drawings illustrating Charb's fights against racism, anti-Semitism, social misery, for secularism, dignity, freedom of expression… lists his relatives.
"
How many parades have we raised fists to the side of those a former president called the toothless?"
»Remembers Marika Bret.
Like his idol Cabu, Charb drew from kindergarten, everywhere, all the time, says his mother.
We were killed, she keeps repeating.
For his parents, he was Stéphane, of this first name which he signed with a capital S as we learn at school, relates his mother tenderly.
She has the courage to face the trial for her son;
his father tattooed "Stéphane" on his arm.
"
I continue to talk to her every day,
" says Valérie Martinez, "
the lover, the mistress, the lover, but not the companion
" she specifies.
“
Charb proudly claimed his celibacy.
He was married, but to Charlie.
"
"Charlie Hedbo
, it was his life, he had the values of the republic pegged to the body
", adds Marika Brett.
Which explains why he remained unperturbed despite the threats, she said.
“
He was combative because he had seen the evolution of things.
"Like that day"
when he saw his face next to Salman Rushie with dead or alive for crimes against Islam.
He took reality in the face but for him it was even more essential that Charlie not stop.
"Malika Brett, who works at the newspaper today, assures him:"
They killed men but not their ideas.
"
► Read also:
Trial of the "Charlie Hebdo" attack: the cartoonist Cabu honored by his widow
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