France to try 14 people over Jan 2015 Paris attacks

PARIS, France — French anti-terror judges have recommended that 14 people be tried in connection with the January 2015 jihadist attacks in and around Paris, a judicial source told AFP Friday.

The attacks against the Paris offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, a policewoman in the nearby suburb of Montrouge, and a Jewish supermarket killed 17 people and marked the start of a wave of jihadist attacks in France.

Eleven people are in custody suspected of assisting in the attacks, while another three are wanted by police.

Under French law, they can appeal the decision to send them to trial.

The trial, whose date will be determined at a later date, will come more than four years after brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi killed 12 people at the offices of Charlie Hebdo on January 7, 2015.

The next day a policewoman was gunned down just outside Paris, while another gunman, Amedy Coulibaly, took hostages at a Jewish Hyper Cacher shop, four of whom were killed.

All three attackers were killed in two separate shootouts with police.

Those to be tried are accused of “complicity” in assisting the attackers, including providing them with weapons.

Judicial sources said investigations in connection with the attacks were continuing, notably in Yemen, which one of the Kouachi brothers visited in 2011.

Responsibility for the attack against Charlie Hebdo was claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, an offshoot of the main Al-Qaeda organisation.