Belgian shops threatened for stocking Charlie Hebdo

Four bookshops in Brussels receive letters warning of reprisals if they distribute the controversial first issue of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo since last week’s attacks, Belgian authorities say.

“I recommend that you do not spread these cartoons of our beloved Mohammed in this despicable Charlie Hebdo magazine, at the risk of reprisals against you and your horrible business,” the letters say, according to the Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws.

Belgian prosecutors say they are taking the letters sent to the bookshops late on Tuesday “very seriously” and are analyzing video footage and making other inquiries to find whoever wrote them.

“In the current context, this type of act is intolerable,” spokesman Laurens Dumont is quoted as saying by the Belga news agency.

— AFP