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Paris court convicts 14 for helping January 2015 terror attacks

France— Link

A Paris court on Wednesday handed 14 defendants jail sentences ranging from four years to life imprisonment for their part in helping terrorist gunmen in their shooting massacres over three days in January 2015 at the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine and of hostages at a Jewish supermarket, and the murder of a trainee policewoman, killing a total of 17 people.
by La rédaction de Mediapart

Paris kosher store worker recounts terrorist siege and murders

France— Link

At the trial in Paris of 14 people accused of aiding the January 2015 terrorist attacks in the capital, Zarie Sibony, 28, gave a harrowing account of the four-hour siege at the kosher store where she worked as a cashier, when Amédy Coulibaly murdered four hostages and, she recalled, told his captives 'You are Jews and French, the two things I hate the most'.
by La rédaction de Mediapart

France's 'spirit of January 11' or the ghost of a unity that passed

France— Opinion

Following the January 2015 terror attacks in and around Paris which left 20 people dead, including the three gunmen, there were huge marches held across France to express public outrage over the events. On Sunday January 11th, an estimated four million people took to the streets of the country’s major towns and cities, with an estimated two million in Paris alone. The French government, and in particular Prime Minister Manuel Valls, has since coined the phrase ‘the spirit of January 11’, using it repeatedly as a rallying call for national unity, notably as it drove through its recent law to introduce mass surveillance powers for the security services. But the recurrent references to what was a remarkable day have now turned sour, amid a heightening debate, as critics on the Right and Left accuse the government of attempting to invent a false conception for cynical political gain. One of them is Christian Salmon, a writer and researcher with the Paris-based Centre for Research in the Arts and Language. In this opinion article he argues that the ‘spirit of January 11’ has “evolved into a confusing scrum, a macabre dance with a cortege of grimacing masks, heroic posturing and denunciations”.
by Christian Salmon