(AFP) French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, the target of a massacre by Islamist gunmen in 2015, said Tuesday it was republishing hugely controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed to mark this week’s start of the trial of alleged accomplices to the attack.
The cover of Wednesday’s new issue has a dozen cartoons mocking the prophet of Islam, reproducing images that sparked protests when first published and a debate about the limits of freedom of speech.
“We will never lie down. We will never give up,” director Laurent “Riss” Sourisseau wrote in an accompanying editorial.
“The hatred that struck us is still there and, since 2015, it has taken the time to mutate, to change its appearance, to go unnoticed and to quietly continue its ruthless crusade,” he said.
(Text updated)
