In Pictures: Charlie Hebdo marks year since attack with provocative cover, Francois Hollande unveils memorial plaques

QUICK PILL

• The widow of a slain police bodyguard has stated that she will be taking legal action over alleged security failings during Charlie Hebdo attacks.

• Hollande began the commemorations by inaugurating a plaque at Charlie Hebdo\'s former offices, where cartoonists were killed.

Hollande began the commemorations by inaugurating a plaque at Charlie Hebdo's former offices, where cartoonists who were household names in France, nicknamed Cabu, Wolinski and Charb, were killed along with nine others by radicalised brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi.

But Ingrid Brinsolaro, the widow of Charb's bodyguard Franck Brinsolaro who was killed alongside him in the attack on January 7, 2015, said she had filed a lawsuit claiming that her husband was left vulnerable because Charlie Hebdo was inadequately protected.

"To me, Franck was sacrificed, there's no other word for it. He saw shortcomings, he regretted the lack of security at the offices. He said it was a 'sieve' and it was impossible to do his job right in those conditions," she said on French television on Tuesday.

The cover of the latest edition of Charlie Hebdo, marking the first anniversary of the terror attack that targeted its offices in Paris on January 7, 2015. Photo: AFP

French police evacuate hostages after launching a rescue at the Hyper Cacher Kosher grocery store taken over by gunmen in Porte de Vincennes, eastern Paris, on January 9, 2015 (AFP Photo/Thomas Samson)

Remembrance tree:

Hollande and others went on to unveil a third plaque at Hyper Cacher, the kosher store in an eastern suburb where three shoppers and an employee were killed during a horrifying hostage drama.

Hollande greeted Lassana Bathily, the Muslim worker at the supermarket credited with saving many shoppers' lives by helping them hide in an underground cold room and later helping police to mount the raid in which they killed Coulibaly.

Bathily, a Malian who was given French nationality in the wake of the attacks, told AFP: "It's sad... In our hearts, we are here, offering support to their (the victims') families." On Saturday, a fourth plaque is to be unveiled at the site in the southern suburb of Montrouge where Coulibaly gunned down a policewoman.

A sign reading, "it is hard to be killed by idiots" is posted with images of four of the journalists killed at the Charlie Hebdo offices when its' Paris office was attacked in January 2015. Photo: AFP

Timeline of attacks in France as the anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo killings approaches. Photo:AFP

About Charlie Hebdo:

Charlie Hebdo, whose biting, often vulgar humour has spared no religion or political persuasion, will publish a special commemorative edition on Wednesday.

True to form, the cover is unabashedly provocative, featuring a Kalashnikov-toting God figure wearing a blood-stained white robe, under the headline: "One year on: The killer is still at large."

In an editorial, cartoonist Riss, who survived the attack, said his colleagues had been killed "for having dared laugh at religion".

With AFP inputs