Par
serge.velain
Published on
Jan 7, 2025 at 6:40 a.m.
Ten years ago, on January 7, 2015, the day of the Charlie Hebdo attack, we met early in the morning in an office of the Publihebdos printing company, in Caorches-Saint-Nicolas, near Bernay (Eure). .
Our editor at the time, Jérôme Morinièrenewly appointed, had summoned the editors-in-chief of his distribution area and the heads of composition workshops to this working meeting. It was about taking stock of the past year and discussing action plans for the current one.
The atmosphere was studious but also as always, very relaxed. We were happy to see each other again and couldn't wait to go to lunch together.
A destiny that changes
At the time, I was editor-in-chief of L'Éveil de Pont-Audemer. My counterparts were, for the Courrier de l'Eure, Jean-Paul Adam, and for the Éveil Normand, Ingrid Brinsolaro. Jean-Paul has spent almost his entire career at Courrier. Ingrid, originally from Camargue, had previously worked at Eure Infos/La Dépêche in Evreux, before being appointed editor-in-chief at Bernay.
Some of us didn't know anything about Franck Brinsolaro, Ingrid's seas. Others knew he was a police officer, nothing more. Ingrid, who did not mix work and private life, spoke little about him.
So when at the end of the morning one of us, in the corridor, turned his cell phone back on and discovered the first information on the attack in progress at the Charlie Hebdo editorial office, and shared this information with all of us… we were far from imagining the terrible reaction our colleague would have.
Panicked, while information about this attack was only trickling in, Ingrid went out and tried to contact her husband, without success obviously. Nobody knowing precisely the extent of the damage, the number of deaths and even more so their identities, Ingrid wanted to go to the editorial office of L'Éveil, rue Thiers in Bernay. Jérôme Morinière accompanied him there. With colleagues, we headed to the Bistrot Normand, where a table had been reserved. We had lunch there very quickly, the information on the drama “falling” little by little. We quickly decided to go to l'Éveil, rue Thiers.
Three police officers from Paris were already there. They had come to look for Ingrid. The latter's cries, her tears as well as those of her colleagues at the time, still resonate in our heads. In a few minutes, the destiny of Franck and Ingrid had changed. We had been helpless witnesses to it.
Franck was an adventurer
Franck Brinsolaro was an adventurer, we were going to learn next. Aged 48 (he should have celebrated his 49th birthday on January 11, 2015) and father of two children – a 25-year-old eldest and a 13-month-old daughter, born from his union with Ingrid – this discreet hero had carried out numerous missions abroad before joining the VIP close protection service.
Franck had thirty years of career in the police behind him, thirty years traveling through the hot spots of the planet: Lebanon, Bosnia, Cambodia, Afghanistan… Among his feats of arms, he had enabled the French embassy in Cambodia, with other police colleagues, to exfiltrate around thirty people caught under fire from two camps rivals. Back in France, he was then the bodyguard of several personalities, such as judges Charles Ducheinewho had investigated the mafia networks of Marseille, or even Marc Trevidicinvestigating judge of the anti-terrorism unit at the Paris High Court and a major specialist in Islamist networks.
See below the tribute thatPresident of the Republic François Hollande had returned to Franck Brinsolaro.
Franck Brinsolaro was one of the two police officers in charge of protecting Charlie Hebdo journalists, threatened by Islamist terrorists since the publication of the caricatures. Frank was in charge of the close protection of Stéphane Charbonnierbetter known under the pseudonym Charb, editor-in-chief of Charlie Hebdo.
A complaint dismissed
Ingrid was a woman of character. She had partly organized her husband's funeral, celebrated at the Sainte-Croix church in Bernay on January 15, 2015.
Ingrid asked us to brandish our press cards and shout “Liberty” as the coffin passed through the church. I still get goosebumps. Ingrid would then go out of her way to find out more about what happened on January 7, 2015 in the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris.
According to his information and information relating to the investigation, the terrorists left Franck Brinsolaro no chancewho would not have managed to draw his weapon, no chance for any of the victims of the attack either.
Twelve people died in Charlie Hebdo attack
The attack on Charlie Hebdo, an Islamist terrorist attack perpetrated against the satirical newspaper on January 7, 2015 in Paris, was the first and deadliest of the three attacks in January 2015 in France. It was committed by the Chérif brothers and Saïd Kouachi. The latter entered the building housing the newspaper's premises around 11:30 a.m. armed with assault rifles. They murdered twelve people there, including eight members of the editorial staff.
The victims of the killings in the building were Frédéric Boisseau, responsible for maintaining the building; the five designers Cabu, Charb, Honoré, Tignous and Wolinski; the psychoanalyst and columnist Elsa Cayat; the economist Bernard Maris; proofreader Mustapha Ourrad; the police officer Franck Brinsolaro, who provided protection for Charb and Michel Renaud, co-founder of the “Rendez-vous du notebook de voyage” festival, invited to attend the editorial conference; Ahmed Merabet, peace guard, was then shot dead on Boulevard Richard-Lenoir by one of the two terrorists during their escape. The final toll of the Charlie Hebdo attack was twelve people murdered and eleven injured, four of them seriously.
The two perpetrators of the massacre were killed two days later – north of Paris, in Dammartin-en-Goële – by members of the GIGN whom they attacked with assault rifles as they left the printing house where they had taken refuge. .
Once their perpetrators were killed, the attacks of January 2015 will still lead to a trial. Fourteen people suspected of having provided logistical assistance to terrorists will be tried from September to December 2020 in Paris before the Special Assize Court. Eleven will be physically present at the hearing; the three others, who have been the subject of an arrest warrant since September 2018, will be tried in their absence; two of these three are presumed deceased.
On December 16, 2020, the Assize Court delivered its verdict, the sentences ranging from 4 years in prison to life imprisonment.
However, according to Ingrid, the tragedy could perhaps have been avoided; according to her, there would have been negligence prior to the attack, which led her to son avocat Me Philippe Stepniewski to file a complaint against » A complaint closed without further action.
A huge impact
The attack of January 7, 2015 having left twelve dead, its impact was considerable, both in France and abroad. Demonstrations of support took place in many cities in France and around the world.
On Sunday January 11, 2015, 44 heads of state and government participated in a “Republican march” in Paris bringing together more than a million and a half people, while over two days, more than four million French people marched throughout the country.
Throughout the Bernay region it was the same, the inhabitants mourning the death of Franck Brinsolaro and all the other victims of the attack of January 7, in particular during a demonstration which took place the day after the tragedy, the January 8, 2015. About 2,000 people gathered.
Lucie Drieu, former journalist at L’Eveil normand, remembers that “ there was a very dense, sad and silent crowd. » For the mayor at the time, Hervé Maurey, “in Bernayen’s memory, we had never seen so many people”.
We remember it, we still get chills from it.
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