Europe 1 with AFP // Photo credit: Dimitar DILKOFF / POOL / AFP 20:46 p.m., January 07, 2024, modified at 20:47 p.m., January 07, 2024
Nine years later, François Hollande, Éric Dupond-Moretti, Yaël Braun-Pivet and other personalities paid tribute to the victims of the jihadist attacks on Charlie Hebdo, Montrouge and the HyperKosher. On X, the head of state wrote that the terrorists "wanted to destroy our freedoms and divide us" but the French are "always united".The perpetrators of the 2015 jihadist attacks on Charlie Hebdo, Montrouge and HyperKosher "wanted to destroy our freedoms and divide us" but the French are "always united", President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday as he paid tribute to the 17 victims of these attacks.
"We don't forget," Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne said on the same social network (formerly Twitter). Those who fell in the attacks were "killed because they embodied freedom of expression, because they were doing their duty or because they were Jews," she said.
Between 7 and 9 January 2015, France was the target of Islamist terrorism.
By attacking Charlie Hebdo, a Hyper Kosher and police officers, the assassins wanted to destroy our freedoms and divide us.
Always united, our thoughts are with the 17 victims and their loved ones.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) January 7, 2024
Several personalities paid tribute to the victims
Nine years later, tribute ceremonies were held on Sunday in front of the scene of the attacks, in the presence of former head of state François Hollande and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo. Also present were the President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet, Ministers Éric Dupond-Moretti (Justice), Clément Beaune (Transport) and Rima Abdul Malak (Culture), as well as the President of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) Yonathan Arfi, the Chief Rabbi of France Haïm Korsia and the President of the Central Consistory of France Elie Korchia.
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The participating personalities first gathered in front of the former Paris offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, in the presence of its director Riss. It was there that brothers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi shot dead 11 people on January 7, 2015, including emblematic figures of "Charlie". Then, a few meters away, on Boulevard Richard-Lenoir, the tribute continued at the spot where police lieutenant Ahmed Merabet had been killed by the Kouachi brothers while trying to stop them in their flight. Ahmed Merabet's sister, Nabiha, was present on Sunday.
The ceremonies concluded in front of the HyperKosher at the Porte de Vincennes, where another jihadist, Amédy Coulibaly, killed four hostages, all Jews, on January 9, 2015, before being shot dead by police. A final moment of remembrance is due to take place on Monday in Montrouge (Hauts-de-Seine), where municipal policewoman Clarissa Jean-Philippe was murdered on January 8, 2015 by Amédy Coulibaly.