Police officers are seen near the former offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris, France, on September 25, 2020. Two people were stabbed near the office today. (Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes)

CPJ condemns knife attack near former Charlie Hebdo office in Paris

Berlin, September 25, 2020 – At least two people were injured in Paris today in a knife attack near the former offices of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, amid the ongoing trial of the suspected facilitators of the 2015 attack on the paper that killed 12 people—including eight journalists—according to media reports.

“CPJ is deeply concerned about today’s violent attack near the former offices of Charlie Hebdo, as the trial in one of history’s deadliest media attacks continues,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Authorities must thoroughly investigate the attack and determine whether it was related to Charlie Hebdo’s work.”

Police detained two suspects in today’s attack, and authorities have opened a counter-terrorism investigation into the stabbings, according to news reports. Those reports stated that the victims, whose names have not been released, work at the Premières Lignes investigative TV production company, and said their wounds are not life threatening.

The trial of 14 people suspected of aiding the two perpetrators of the 2015 massacre at Charlie Hebdo is ongoing in Paris, according to those reports.