The trial of 14 people accused of complicity in the separate January 2015 terrorist attacks in and around the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine, against a Jewish food store, and a policewoman, opened in the French capital on Wednesday. The three perpetrators, who murdered a total of 17 people, were themselves shot dead by police. Absent from the hearings are three defendants whose fate or eventual whereabouts is unknown, while others have slipped through the net of the investigations. In this first of a two-part report, Matthieu Suc details the background and chronology of events leading to this marathon trial due to end in November.
The three Syrians, who police suspect were a 'sleeper cell', appear to have travelled via the same traffickers as three suicide bombers who blew themselves up near Paris in November 2015.
After IS claim role in Nice truck attack, the BBC's Paris correspondent points to new danger of 'neighbourhood' loners who fall prey to jihadist propaganda.
Yassine Abaaoud, whose brother was killed by French police after the November 13th attacks, was jailed two years for non-denunciation and promotion of terrorism.
The massacres in Paris on November 13th last year and the attacks in Brussels on March 22nd have focused attention on Islamic State. Yet the threat from Al Qaeda terrorism has not gone away. Indeed, French intelligence agencies fear that the older terrorist movement may be planning to up the stakes with an attack on France in a bid to restore its flagging reputation in relation to its jihadist rival. Matthieu Suc reports.
Salah Abdeslam, arrested in Brussels and wanted by France for his role in November Paris terror attacks, held documents from centre near Belgium-Germany border.
Belgian prosecutors say Mohamed Abrini, who has admitted being third Brussels airport bomber, said the group changed target after arrest of Salah Abdeslam.
