Charlie Hebdo cleaver attacker named and charged

The man who allegedly attacked two people with a meat cleaver in Paris last week has been charged with “attempted murder with relation to a terrorist enterprise”, French anti-terrorist prosecutors told AFP on Tuesday.

The man has now been identified as Pakistani-born Zaheer Hassan Mehmood, 25.

He had lied to investigators about his name and age, but they found a photo of an old identity document on his phone

In a video filmed before the attack, he said he was going to avenge the recent  republication of cartoons of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad by the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Their original publication in 2015 prompted avengers to massacre staff in the magazine’s offices.

Charlie Hebdo now operates from a secret location but Mehmood mistakenly believed they were still in their old offices.

The trial of 14 alleged accomplices in that attack is currently underway in Paris.