The man who attacked two people with a chopper in front of the former Charlie Hebdo premises as well as five of his relatives, suspected of having motivated and supported him, will appear in court from Monday.
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The assailant, Zaheer Mahmood, now 29 years old, was on trial for attempted terrorist assassinations and criminal terrorist association. He and his five co-accused are Pakistanis, who arrived in France between 2018 and 2019.
Three of them being minors at the time of the facts, the trial is being held before the specially composed juvenile court, behind closed doors. The debates could, however, be held in open court, as all the accused have since become adults. The decision will be made at the opening of the hearing.
The attack took place on September 25, 2020, in the midst of the January 2015 attacks which notably targeted Charlie Hebdo. The satirical weekly was the subject of new threats since it republished the caricatures of Mohammed which had made it the target of jihadists, on the day the trial opened on September 2.
Around 11:40 a.m. on September 25, Zaheer Mahmood arrived in front of a building on rue Nicolas-Appert (11th arrondissement of Paris), armed with a chopper, and seriously injured two employees of the Premières Lignes agency who were under the porch to smoke a cigarette. According to the exploitation of video surveillance images, the assailant dealt each of them violent blows with a butcher's sheet from top to bottom on the skull and neck.
Zaheer Mahmood thought of attacking Charlie Hebdo employees, unaware that the newspaper had left its premises after the 2015 attack. “What I did is good. I feel better. I consider that they are well punished. We don't make fun of religion”he declared in police custody.
To investigators Zaheer Mahmood explained his action by the anger felt during the new publication of the caricatures of Mohammed. This publication led to demonstrations in Muslim countries, including Pakistan, his country of birth. Before trying to put his involvement into perspective, Zaheer Mahmood assured that “to die as a martyr” would be his reward.
“I was angry, it was dark, I didn't know what I was doing. I took my bag, took out the knife, came back to them and attacked them without knowing where I was hitting“, he had said in Urdu during interrogation.
The investigating magistrates considered that his “the gesture was carefully prepared by several scoutings at the scene of the events and by the purchase of weapons in particular”including butcher's leaf.
The magistrates also recalled that he had organized everything to ensure “the broadcast of the demand video”. “We reserve our explanations for the hearing which our client hopes will be calm“, Zaheer Mahmood's lawyers, Maïa Kantor and Albéric de Gayardon, told AFP.
Searches and analyzes of the numerous telephones and computer equipment found at Mr. Mahmood's home made it possible to identify five people who allegedly had it.motivated and supported in his ideological process which has become a violent spiral”. The investigation demonstrated regular contacts between Zaheer Mahmood and these men, including the exchange of videos of sermons advocating beheading for blasphemers.
“My client was only the roommate of a friend of the accused”Me Moad Nefati explained to AFP. “He was not aware of Zaheer Mahmood’s intentions,” added the lawyer who intends to plead for acquittal. Three of the main accused's relatives appear detained. All five are being prosecuted for criminal terrorist association.
