Charlie Hebdo attacks: Widow of magazine editor's police bodyguard to sue French state over lax security

Ingrid Brinsolaro believes that more could have been done to prevent the terror attack in which 12 died

The satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo is to publish a special anniversary edition to commemorate lost colleagues and those who died at a kosher supermarket last year (Reuters)

The widow of a policeman murdered in the attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices a year ago has brought a legal case against French security authorities for manslaughter.

Ingrid Brinsolaro, whose husband, Franck, was the police bodyguard of the magazine’s editor, believes that more could have been done to prevent the attack in which 12 died.

There was further embarrassment for the French government when President François Hollande unveiled a commemorative plaque outside the magazine’s former offices in eastern Paris. The name of one victim, the veteran cartoonist Georges Wolinski, was spelled wrongly with a final “y”. Within seconds of its unveiling, the plaque was covered again as the Paris city hall promised to correct it.

Mr Hollande also unveiled a plaque on the street nearby where a Muslim policeman, Ahmed Merabet, was murdered in cold blood by Chérif and Said Kouachi soon after their attack on Charlie Hebdo a year ago on Thursday. The President embraced and kissed the murdered policeman’s mother, who was dressed in an elaborate white headscarf and tunic. Nearby, in an echo of the “Je suis Charlie” slogan adopted after the attack, the words “Je suis Ahmed” were sprayed on the pavement in red, white and blue.

Later Mr Hollande inaugurated a similar memorial to four people murdered by Amédy Coulibaly, an associate of the Kouachi brothers, at a Jewish supermarket two days later. This weekend, Mr Hollande will unveil a plaque commemorating a policewoman, Clarissa Jean-Philippe, murdered by Coulibaly.

Ms Brinsolaro believes her husband and the others were victims of official bungling. She said her husband had complained of “dysfunctions” in security at the magazine and that “it was impossible to do his job correctly”. She has made a formal criminal complaint against “persons unknown” for “knowing failure” to impose sufficient security precautions.