January 2015 attack -
Hollandse Hoogte / J.
van G / SIPA
At the trial of the January 2015 attacks,
Charlie Hebdo's
lawyer
called on Friday not to “renounce” freedom and cartoons, during a vibrant tribute to the missing cartoonists.
“Cartoons are not to blame.
What is culpable is barbarism, and nothing else, ”hammered Richard Malka, the last of the civil party lawyers to speak to the special assize court in Paris, after five days of pleadings.
"It would be giving up our history, our reason"
“We cannot renounce free criticism of religions.
It would be to renounce our history, our reason.
It would be renouncing indomitable human freedom, renouncing this wonderful right to piss off God!
“, He warned, during a plea for impertinence and the spirit of freedom.
Historical lawyer of the satirical weekly and close friend of several cartoonists killed during the attack on
Charlie Hebdo
, Richard Malka claims to still suffer, five years later, from the "absence" of his companions, and in particular of the cartoonist Charb, who “inspired her every day”.
But he "refuses" to give up the "fight", in the name of their common fight against "fanaticism": "What defiles humanity, it is not caricatures, it is this powerful venom of ideology. victim who turns human beings into killing machines!
"
A trial with a "symbolic dimension"
Fourteen people were returned to the special assize court, three of whom are judged by default, because of their alleged logistical support to the Kouachi brothers and Coulibaly, killed by the police.
The trial, which opened on September 2, is scheduled to end on December 16.
What meaning should be given to this trial, qualified as "historic", but where the absence of the perpetrators of the attacks has constantly hovered over the debates?
For Richard Malka, the role of the court should not be only to try the accused but to take into account the “symbolic dimension” of the trial.
"This trial was epic, tragic, eventful, sometimes romantic ... It sparked the fury of the world, from Turkey to Pakistan via Afghanistan", recalls the lawyer, referring to the demonstrations caused by the republication of the cartoons on the first day of the hearing.
During the trial, "a teacher" was also "cut in two, sorry for these horrible words, but it is the sad reality", insists Me Malka, referring to the murder on October 16 of Samuel Paty, beheaded after showing caricatures of Muhammad to his students.
In this context, "this trial cannot be a trial like any other", insists the lawyer, calling for "values".
“Let’s not give up on our ideals!
"
"A crime of indifference, of convenience"
In the courtroom, where many survivors and relatives of victims of the
Charlie Hebdo
attack
took their places, including Charb's mother, former director of the publication, a heavy silence settled.
In the box, the accused also listen, motionless.
Questioned during long weeks, these delinquents already convicted several times for common law cases, but never for terrorism, all denied having heard of anything, by multiplying muddled explanations and omissions.
Deliberate defense strategy?
“I will not comment on the guilt of the men who are behind this box.
But for me, those of them who knew Coulibaly all committed a crime, which is nowhere in the Penal Code: a crime of indifference, of indulgence, ”laments Me Malka.
The killer of the Hyper Cacher was indeed "anti-Semitic for years, deeply, and it was inevitably visible", believes the lawyer, for whom the accused "did not want to see".
“However, at one point, not asking questions, that poses a problem!
"An opinion shared by two of her sisters, Me Marie-Laure Barré and Me Nathalie Senyk, who denounced in their pleadings the" carefully organized confusion "by the accused.
“The victims needed justice, to understand and try to appease.
The defendants did not allow it.
"
The attorney general's requisitions will take place Monday and Tuesday, before the defense pleadings.
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