Hollande Outlines Anti-Terror Plans on Anniversary of Charlie Hebdo Attacks

Hollande is due to outline plans to strengthen laws against organized crime and terrorism. Among the plans are what could be controversial measures to give police more flexible rules of engagement and stronger stop-and-search powers.

France has been rocked by a series of terror attacks that began in January 2015, when Saïd and Chérif Kouachi forced their way into the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris and shot 11 people dead, wounding 11 others, before fleeing and killing a policeman outside. They identified themselves as belonging to the Islamist terrorist group Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen. Both were eventually gunned down in a village, after taking a hostage.

The shootings were followed by another hostage-taking event involving Amedy Coulibaly who was a close friend of the Kouachi brothers. Coulibaly entered and attacked people in the kosher food superette in Porte de Vincennes where he murdered four Jewish hostages and held fifteen other hostages. Police ended the siege by storming the store and killing Coulibaly.

​Blasphemy

In June, Yassin Salhi, suspected of being a militant Islamist drove his vehicle to work and beheaded his boss. French media reported Thursday that he had been found dead in his prison cell while awaiting trial.

Then — in the worst attack so far — on November 13, when gunmen and suicide bombers hit a concert hall, a major stadium, restaurants and bars, almost simultaneously — and left 130 people dead and hundreds wounded. The attacks were described by President Francois Hollande as an "act of war" organized by Daesh.

​The anniversary edition of the Charlie Hebdo magazine carried the headline: "One year later, the assassin is still on the run" with a picture of a deity carrying weapons. Gerard Biard, editor-in-chief of Charlie Hebdo told the BBC Thursday:

"All the mass murders that occurred last year on the 7,8 and 9 January and November 13 were made in the name of God. It was clear for us that we had to remind [peopleof] that point. You have faith on the one hand and religion on the other. God is a concept and a political idea which can lead to mass murder."

The Vatican daily newspaper L'Osservatore Romano denounced the front cover saying it was "woeful" and disrespectful to true believers of all faiths. "Behind the deceptive flag of an uncompromising secularism, the French weekly once again forgets what religious leaders of every faith have been urging for ages — to reject violence in the name of religion and that using God to justify hatred is a genuine blasphemy."

"The fact that the church doesn't like our issue is confronting us. The church is a political power, so we aim at political powers," Biaird said.

Meanwhile, a man carrying a knife was shot dead by security services Thursday after attempting to enter a police station in Paris. He was reported as wearing a fake suicide vest.