Trial of the "Charlie Hebdo" attack: "indignation is not enough, we must fight ..."

Designer Corinne Rey, known by the nickname "Coco", and Charlie Hebdo webmaster Simon Fieschi arrive at the Palais de Justice in Paris, September 9, 2020. STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP

Text by: Laura Martel

5 mins

Third week of the trial of the January 2015 attacks. This Monday September 14th will notably take place the hearing of the family of policeman Ahmed Merabet assassinated by the Kouachi brothers during their flight after the Charlie Hebdo attack.

Last week, it was the survivors and relatives of victims of the newspaper killing who spoke.

Moving testimonies which, for some, have taken a political turn.

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The first projection came on Tuesday, from

designer Coco

.

She first told of her hostage-taking by the Kouachi to enter the newspaper, the killing, her difficult reconstruction, and it is at the very end, by evoking

the guilt that has long eaten her that

she launches : “ 

I am not the culprit.

The only culprits are the Kouachi and their accomplices, those who helped them and even in society, those who lower their pants in the face of Islamist ideology

.

"And to insist:" 

There is a social problem, I wanted to say it

.

"

►Also read: The challenges of the trial of the January 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris

The next day, Fabrice Nicolino, the ecology man of Charlie Hebdo, let his frustration explode.

He clearly did not want to expand on January 7 and in particular these three bullets received in the legs and in the abdomen.

On the other hand, he literally came to life to describe the current working conditions of the

Charlie

team

:

the six armored doors, the security doors, the armed police officers, the

panic room

installed within the editorial staff.

Then sharply challenged the journalists present at the hearing: " 

You are coming to this trial, because it is an institutional occasion, but what we have been living on a daily basis for five years, that does not interest you

 " he said. he thundered, before adding: " 

Freedom is defended.

Where are the freedom soldiers?

So yes, we do editorials on Belarus, but that a newspaper lives in a state of siege in the middle of Paris just for drawings, that, the French press does not care

!

 ".

Terrorism rhymes with fascism and Stalinism

Fabrice Nicolino went on to attack a “ 

certain intelligentsia

 ” which he accuses of having “ 

prepared the ground for the attacks

 ”.

Raised " 

in the cult of anti-fascist resistance

 " and already injured during an Islamist attack in Paris in 1985, Fabrice Nicolino is convinced of this: like fascism and Stalinism, " 

Islamist terrorism is a form of totalitarianism which does not argue with anyone, wants to occupy all the public and political space until the death of his opponents

.

"

The journalist then denounces " 

the blindness

 ", the " 

pure stupidity

 " of " 

those who refused to see the evidence

"

of the progression of Islamist ideology in our society.

The attacks have grown on this substrate,

 " says Fabrice Nicolino, in which, according to him, those who maintained " 

this little noise that Charlie was a racist newspaper

 " participated.

►Also read: Who are the 14 accused in the January 2015 bombings trial?

A slap in the face for the entire editorial staff, he loses his temper, but above all for Charb, " 

constant support for occupied Palestine

 ".

Accusing him of racism, "it 

was like burning him with a hot iron

 ," says Fabrice Nicolino.

And to conclude: “ 

This dense network of people who conchied

Charlie, of

course, they are not directly responsible for what happened on January 7th.

But they participated in the psychological preparation of this case.

They gave a

discharge

to the people who will come and kill you afterwards

.

"" 

Never

, he repeats,

never, we will forgive them

.

"

As for the current situation, it is just as deleterious, believes Fabrice Nicolino: “ 

Indignation is not enough.

We must fight for our freedoms.

It's so obvious

.

"

The threats have not abated

A call to defend freedoms, common to all survivors and relatives of victims taken to the bar in this second week.

So that Charlie's 12 did not die for nothing of course, but also " 

for all of us, now, tomorrow,

 " said Richard Malka, the newspaper's lawyer.

Same idea with the emergency physician Patrick Pelloux who warns: “ 

We feel a little alone on the barricade

.

"

And yet, there is an emergency, insists Marika Bret,

Charlie's

first manager

and today his HRD.

Since 2015, the threats have not abated: " 

Not a day goes by without someone writing that the Kouachi's work must be finished

 ," she recalled on Friday.

For her too, the issue goes beyond the newspaper, the problem is social, political.

And to cite as an example the deprogramming of a show set up in 2017 around Charb's posthumous book

: Open letter to the crooks of Islamophobia who play into the hands of racists

;

or the " 

betrayal of people on the left

 ", some of whom were close to Charb, who participated in what she calls " 

the shameful march against Islamophobia

 " at the end of 2019. She had tears of rage when she concluded : “ 

With these compromises, these cowardice, we kill Charb a second time.

 "

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