PARIS 2 Sep (ANA) - Fourteen people are on trial in France over the deadly attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo more than five years ago.

Most of the alleged accomplices are in court in Paris, but three are being tried in absentia.

They are accused of helping the militant Islamist attackers who shot dead 12 people in and around Charlie Hebdo's Paris office in January 2015.

A third gunman shot dead a policewoman and attacked a Jewish supermarket.

In total, 17 people were killed in a period of just three days. The killings marked the beginning of a wave of jihadist attacks across France that left more than 250 people dead.

In the days following the attacks, millions of people took part in solidarity marches across France and around the world under the slogan "Je suis Charlie" (I am Charlie).

The magazine has marked the start of the trial by reprinting controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that sparked protests in several Muslim countries. President Emmanuel Macron has since defended the freedom of the press and the French "freedom to blaspheme, which is linked to freedom of conscience".(ANA)

FA/ANA/2 September 2020----