Anti-terrorism investigating judges on Monday ordered a trial before the special juvenile court for six men for the chopper attack in front of the former Charlie Hebdo premises in September 2020, AFP learned from a source close to the case. .
For this attack on rue Nicolas-Appert in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, which seriously injured two current and former employees of the Premières Lignes press agency, the assailant, Zaheer Mahmood, a 29-year-old Pakistani, will be tried for attempted murder. terrorist assassinations, while the five other men will be for criminal terrorist association.
Three of them being minors at the time of the events, the trial will be held before the specially composed juvenile court.
On the other hand, a dismissal of the case was pronounced against a seventh man who had been presented by the assailant as his
“sponsor”
.
“Shocked” by the caricatures of Mohammed
Zaheer Mahmood arrived in France in 2018. Shortly before noon, on September 25, 2020, this young Pakistani went to rue Nicolas-Appert in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, armed with a chopper, injuring the two victims who were in front the door of the building.
The attacker was unaware that Charlie Hebdo had left its premises after the 2015 attack.
During an interrogation before the investigating judge in December 2020, he confided to having been
“shocked”
by the new publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad by the weekly on the occasion of the opening in early September 2020 of the trial of attacks of January 2015. This publication led to demonstrations in Muslim countries, including Pakistan, his country of origin.