Charlie Hebdo itself will mark the event by republishing the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that spurred huge protests in many Arab countries and reportedly drove the killers to act.
“We will never lie down. We will never give up,” director Laurent “Riss” Sourisseau, who will attend the trial, wrote in an editorial published Wednesday.
The publication drew fresh condemnation from Pakistan’s foreign ministry, which said the decision to again print the cartoons was “deeply offensive”.
“Such a deliberate act to offend the sentiments of billions of Muslims cannot be justified,” it said.
But French President Emmanuel Macron defended the “freedom to blaspheme” while paying tribute to the victims of the attack.
Twelve people, including some of France’s most celebrated cartoonists, were gunned down on January 7, 2015, when brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi stormed the paper’s offices in eastern Paris.
A day later, Amedy Coulibaly, who became close to Cherif Kouachi while they were in prison, killed a 27-year-old police officer, Clarissa Jean-Philippe, during a traffic check in Montrouge, outside Paris.
Then on January 9, Coulibaly killed four men, all Jews, during a hostage-taking at the Hyper Cacher supermarket in Paris. He recorded a video saying the three attacks were coordinated and carried out in the name of the Islamic State jihadist group.
Coulibaly was killed when police stormed the supermarket. The Kouachi brothers were killed when officers carried out a nearly simultaneous operation at the printing shop where they were holed up in Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris.