Police were warned that one of the Charlie Hebdo gunmen had turned up three months before the attack to say it would be targeted, it has been reported, as French film stars leant their weight to the satirical magazine’s anniversary edition a year, reports The Telegraph.
The magazine’s release came as fresh details emerged of alleged security failings in the run-up to the attacks, which have prompted the widows of two victims to file criminal complaints.
Le Canard Enchaîné, the satirical weekly, said three months earlier, a journalist working next to Charlie’s offices had phoned one of two policemen tasked with protecting its editor to warn him he had just come across a man in a car outside talking to himself saying: “That will teach them to criticise the Prophet.”
The journalist later recognised the man as Chérif Kouachi, one of the two brothers who carried out the killings. Kouachi asked him: “Are these Charlie Hebdo’s offices? Is it here they criticise the Prophet?'
He went on: "In any case we’re watching them. You can pass the message on.”
The journalist memorised his licence plate and informed the policeman. His superiors confirmed to Le Canard that a police report was compiled, but the information apparently never reached intelligence services, or if it did they failed to follow it up or boost security at the magazine.
Moreover, this entire episode is curiously "missing" from the judicial report on the killings, reported Le Canard.
In another damning revelation, Paris police had several minutes in which they could have warned Charlie staff to barricade themselves into their offices but they failed to link the address to the magazine, Le Canard reported.