(Radio France) On the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, the trial of 24 suspected jihadists linked to the massacre that killed 12 people at the satirical weekly has opened in Paris. Only five of the suspects are expected to appear in the dock, with most presumed dead in Iraq or Syria.
Known as the “Sevran network,” the suspects allegedly became radicalised at a clandestine mosque in the Paris suburb of Sevran.
The 20 men and four women, of French, Moroccan, Mauritanian and Algerian nationality, converted to jihadist ideology through mentors at the Sevran mosque, some swayed by the declaration of the self-proclaimed “caliphate” by the Islamic State (IS) armed group in June 2014.
