Stéphane Charbonnier, aka Charb, 47
Charbonnier had been editor of Charlie Hebdo since 2009 and led the paper’s charge against the taboo on depicting the prophet Muhammad, in the name of freedom of expression. He had been under police protection since November 2011, when the satirical weekly published a special edition mocking the prophet and Islam, and a firebomb attack destroyed the paper’s offices. e was a well-known cartoonist who had previously worked for the Franco-Belgian comic magazines L’Echo des Savanes and Fluide Glacial, as well as the communist daily Humanité.
In 2012, following a further controversy over the magazine’s depiction of Muhammad, Charbonnier told the avant-garde magazine Tel Quel: “I’m not scared of reprisals. I don’t have kids or a wife, I’ve got no car, no credit.
“It might sound a bit pompous but I prefer to die standing than live on my knees.”
Jean Cabut, aka Cabu, 75
One of France’s best-known cartoonists, Cabut published many popular comic books in the 1970s and 80s. The bespectacled, mop-haired caricaturist worked for the majority of the country’s satirical magazines during his career, including Le Canard Enchaîné and the now-folded Hara-Kiri, as well as Charlie Hebdo.
His talent for instant caricature made him a frequent participant in political television shows, during which he would produce cartoons live.
He studied art in Paris and his first published work was with the newspaper L’Union de Reims. His creation of the cartoon character Le Grand Duduche, a bespectacled schoolboy, led to publication of a series of comic strip books in the 1960s.
Georges Wolinski, 80
The cartoonist Wolinski was a pillar of the French satirical world and had a long association with Charlie Hebdo, having been editor between 1970 and 1981.
Born in Tunis, the son of a Franco-Italian mother and Polish Jewish father, he was brought up by his maternal grandparents in France.
During his long career he worked for the majority of French satirical magazines as well as mainstream newspapers and magazines including France-Soir, Libération, L’Humanité, Le Nouvel Observateur and Paris Match. In May 1968, he founded the paper L’Enrag. He received the Legion of Honour, France’s highest distinction, in 2005.
Bernard Verlhac, aka Tignous, 58
Verlhac was a prolific cartoonist whose work was published in satirical magazines including Charlie Hebdo and the Franco-Belgian comic magazine Fluide Glacial, as well as French news magazines.
He began drawing comic strips in 1980 before moving into the press. He was the author of a 2011 book entitled Five Years Under Sarkozy, about the former centre-right president Nicolas Sarkozy, who was a frequent target of the cartoonist.
Bernard Maris, 68
Maris was an economist and journalist who wrote the weekly Uncle Bernard column in Charlie Hebdo. The author of a book on Keynes, he graduated in economics at Toulouse, where he became a professor.
At the time of his death he was teaching economics at the University of Paris-VIII and was on the board of Charlie Hebdo. He was also a frequent television debater on economic issues, on which he had a reputation for being anti-globalisation. He was a former scientific adviser to Attac, the international movement working for social, environmental and democratic alternatives in the globalisation process.
Earlier in his career, Maris was a lecturer in micro-economics at the University of Iowa in the US and worked at the central bank of Peru.
Philippe Honoré, aka Honoré, 73
Honoré, was the artist who drew the last cartoon tweeted by the weekly only moments before the massacre. It shows the leader of Isis, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, presenting his new year message, saying “and especially good health!” Honoré was a self-educated artist who published his first illustration in the regional newspaper Sud-Ouest at the age of 16. He went on to work for major French dailies, including Le Monde and Libération, and had been with Charlie Hebdo since its foundation in 1992.
Michel Renaud
A visitor to Charlie Hebdo, Renaud, from Clermont-Ferrand, was a former journalist who founded a cultural festival in his home city in central France.
Elsa Cayat
The only female victim of the attacks was a psychoanalyst, author and columnist on Charlie Hebdo. Cayat was at the magazine’s editorial meeting. Her column was entitled Charlie Divan (Charlie couch) and appeared every two weeks. In 2007 she published Un homme + Une femme = Quoi? (A man plus a woman equals what?), dealing with sexual relationships.
Mustapha Ourrad
A subeditor on Charlie Hebdo, Ourrad, from the Kabylie region of Algeria, had previously worked for a magazine serving mutualist federations in France, Viva. He was an orphan who came to France at the age of 20 thanks to funding from friends, according to Le Monde. Friends respected the self-educated Ourrad for his erudition and self-deprecation.
Ahmed Merabet
Merabet, a beat bobby attached to the local police station near Charlie Hebdo, was killed at point blank range after challenging two gunmen as they escaped in a black Citroen C3 from the magazine’s offices. A Muslim originally from Tunisia, he was on patrol in the area and called to the scene. One of the gunmen shot him in the groin, causing him to fall onto the pavement. In a video which has since been removed from the internet, he can be seen raising his arm as though to protect himself against the killers. One of them asks Merabet: “do you want to kill us?” Merabet replies “no, it’s OK mate” (“non, c’est bon, chef” in French). The second gunman then shot him in the head. Another policeman who witnessed the shooting cried out “he’s dead, he’s dead”, prompting scenes of panic on the boulevard where police reinforcements quickly arrived. Merabet was unmarried but had a girlfriend, according to a colleague in the police union.
Franck Brinsolaro, 49
Brinsolaro was the police bodyguard of Charlie Hebdo editor Stéphane Charbonnier. The officer, who had worked for the police protection service since 2013, was in the editorial room where the attack took place. A police union spokesman said that the number of death threats against the satirical magazine’s editor had increased in recent days.
Frédéric Boisseau
Boisseau was a maintenance worker who was in the reception area of the building housing the magazine with a colleague when the gunmen burst in and asked where Charlie Hebdo was located, after initially going to the wrong address. Boisseau, who had worked for the facilities management company Sodexo for 15 years, was shot dead. The company paid tribute to Boisseau on its website, expressing condolences to his family and those of the other victims. Sodexo said it is “intolerable that one of our colleagues lost his life in such tragic and unjust circumstances, and for a cause which is so contrary to our values”.
