Charlie Hebdo attacks: Widow of Said Kouachi tells of ‘enormous bitterness’ at being abandoned by Paris killer

The 34-year-old and his brother Chérif, 32, murdered 12 people in an attack on the offices of the satirical magazine before being killed two days later as police stormed their hideout

Said Kouachi was killed in a shootout with police (Getty Images)

The widow of the one of the Charlie Hebdo attackers has revealed that nothing in their “very close” marriage suggested that he was about to commit an act of terrorism.

In a message relayed by her lawyer, Soumya Kouachi, 30, the widow of Said, the elder of the two Kouachi brothers, said she felt “enormous bitterness” towards her late husband. “He abandoned me and our [three-year-old] child and his crime was quite simply actrocious,” she added.

Said Kouachi, 34, and his brother Chérif, 32, murdered 12 people in an attack on the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo a year ago today. They were killed two days later as police stormed their hideout in a print works at Dammartin-en-Goële, north of the capital.

Ms Kouachi, who not spoken publicly about the atrocity before – was arrested for questioning after the attacks but released without charge.

In comments passed to French media by her lawyer, Antoine Flasaquier, she said she had tried to recall signs that her husband intended to commit an act of terrorism but could remember none.

She added that he was “quiet” man who never preached radical Islam and never mentioned Isis’s jihadist campaign in Syria.