Charlie Hebdo assault victims honored as Iran rages over new cartoons

French politicians paid tribute to Charlie Hebdo journal workers and different victims of the January 2015 Islamist assaults.

In this picture launched by the official web site of the workplace of the Iranian supreme chief, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in Tehran, Iran, on Nov. 26, 2022. (AP File)

By Agence France-Presse: French politicians paid tribute on Saturday to Charlie Hebdo journal workers and different victims of the January 2015 Islamist assaults, days after the satirical weekly’s newest version sparked outrage in Iran.

French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted the names of all 17 victims of a spate of assaults eight years in the past in and round Paris, together with the 12 individuals killed on the workplaces of Charlie Hebdo.

“We will never forget you,” he added, with a cartoon by the well-known French cartoonist Plantu hooked up.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne additionally marked the anniversary of the assaults, which additionally concerned a lethal siege at a kosher grocery store.

“In the face of Islamist terrorism, the Republic remains standing,” she tweeted. “For their families, for our values, for our liberty: we do not forget.”

And Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak tweeted: “Satire, irreverence, the republican tradition of press cartoons are intrinsic to our democracy. We continue to defend them.”

The tributes got here days after Tehran reacted furiously to cartoons mocking Iran’s management within the newest subject of Charlie Hebdo, which appeared Wednesday.

READ: Iran closes French institute over Charlie Hebdo cartoons

The journal had invited cartoonists to depict Iran’s supreme chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei within the context of ongoing demonstrations towards his theocratic regime, by girls particularly.

The graphic entrance cowl sought to spotlight the battle for girls’s rights, whereas others have been sexually specific and insulting towards Khamenei and fellow clerics.

Many cartoons pointed to the authorities’ use of capital punishment as a tactic to quell the protests.

TEHRAN’S ANGER

In response, Iran summoned France’s ambassador and known as on the federal government to carry “the authors of such hatred” to account.

On Thursday, it stated it was closing the Tehran-based French Institute for Research.

“France has no right to insult the sanctities of other Muslim countries and nations under the pretext of freedom of expression,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani stated.

READ: Iran summons French envoy over ‘insulting’ cartoons of its chief Ayatollah Khamenei

In Paris Saturday, Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin and the town’s Mayor Anne Hidalgo have been among the many politicians who attended a ceremony on the former workplaces of Charlie Hebdo, within the metropolis’s eleventh arrondissement.

It was there that two gunmen killed workers on the journal, together with a few of its best-known cartoonists.

A number of meters farther down the identical avenue, police lieutenant Ahmed Merabet was gunned down by the killers as he tried to cease their escape.

The gunmen, who claimed to signify al-Qaida within the Arabian Peninsula stated they have been taking revenge for earlier satirical cartoons within the journal depicting the Prophet Mohammed. They have been killed after two days on the run.

The day after the Charlie Hebdo assault, one other Islamist gunman killed a police officer in Montrouge, simply exterior Paris— and a day later he killed 4 hostages at a Jewish grocery store in east Paris.

He was shot lifeless as police stormed the premises and freed the remaining hostages.

READ: Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei vows revenge after lethal assault on Shiite pilgrims

Published On:

Jan 8, 2023