"
It's part of what we're fighting for
."
At the appeal trial of the January 2015 attacks, Riss, the director of
Charlie Hebdo
, once again defended this Thursday the publication of the cartoons of Muhammad, which will "
always
" make the newspaper a "
target
".
On January 7, 2015, it was around 11:35 a.m. when the brothers Chérif and Saïd Kouachi came out of the building where they killed a maintenance worker and decimated the editorial staff of the satirical weekly, shouting “
We avenged the Prophet Muhammad!
We killed Charlie Hebdo!
»
Riss, whose real name is Laurent Sourisseau, is one of the rare survivors of the massacre.
In the same voice as during the first trial two years ago, the director of the publication of
Charlie Hebdo
recounts how, pinned to the ground, he heard the shots "
one by one
" and waited for his "
turn to arrive
".
Hit in the shoulder by a Kalashnikov bullet, he was hospitalized and has been living under police protection since the attack.
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At the helm of the special assize court in Paris, which is retrying two relatives of the Hyper Cacher killer Amedy Coulibaly, he explains that "
the insults and threats
" towards the newspaper have not disappeared, that "
a climate of uninhibited hostility
".
“Charlie Hebdo
is always a target,
Charlie Hebdo
will always be a target as long as we exist
”, estimates the manager of the weekly, who had decided to republish in September 2020, the day of the opening of the trial at first instance, Muhammad cartoons.
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When the newspaper published them for the first time in 2006, with this front page which makes Muhammad say "
It's hard to be loved by idiots
", no one in the editorial staff saw "
something very worrying
" in the reactions of world anger and the lawsuits brought in France: justice will prove them right.
No more when
Charlie Hebdo
suffered a fire in 2011, assures Riss.
“
For us, it was not dangerous to make drawings on religion.
It had been since the middle of the 19th century that we had not put designers in prison, so killing them even less
, ”underlines the director of the publication.
"The fight goes on"
"
The problem is that from that moment on, the death mechanics will begin, the
Charlie Hebdo Islamophobia trial
will begin, you are told to be Islamophobic
", notes the lawyer for the satirical newspaper, Me Richard Malka.
After “
the massacre of January 7, 2015, you are held responsible for what happened
”, he supports.
“
At
Charlie Hebdo
, we draw pictures of what seems to be open to criticism in religion, not against the practice of religion.
Although it's very unpleasant to be accused of being responsible for your misfortune, it galvanizes me
,” says Riss.
This is why after the death of cartoonists Charb, Cabu, Honoré, Wolinski and Tignous, columnists Bernard Maris and Elsa Cayat, proofreader Mustapha Ourrad, Michel Renaud and the policeman assigned to the protection of Charb, Franck Brinsolaro, "
he had to continue
" and that the newspaper survive.
"
The fight continues because it is for everyone's benefit, not just for
Charlie Hebdo," adds Riss.
All these deaths, the fact that the editorial staff now works "
in a bunker
", the "
accusations of Islamophobia (which) do not cease
" , lists Richard Malka.
Do you regret publishing these cartoons?
» «
We don't regret it because it's part of what we fight for, what we believe in, the identity of the newspaper.
If we start to regret, we should regret doing the newspaper since 1992
, ”answers Riss.
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After his hearing, the president gives the floor to the two defendants.
“
These are things that are beyond us
,” comments Amar Ramdani.
“
It is inhuman what they have done.
Courage to him and to the others
,” says Ali Riza Polat.
Respectively retried for terrorist criminal association and complicity in terrorist assassinations, they deny any link with the attacks, which killed a total of 17 people in January 2015. The hearings of civil parties continue until September 22.
End of trial scheduled for October 21.
