Highest honour for police victims
President presents posthumous Legion D’Honneur to three police officers killed in last week’s terror attacks
THREE police officers killed in last week’s terror attacks in Paris have been posthumously awarded France’s highest award - the Legion D’Honneur - at a ceremony in their honour.
Ahmed Merabet and protection officer Franck Brinsolaro were killed when the Charlie Hebdo offices were stormed last Wednesday, and trainee officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe was gunned down the following morning when she attended a traffic accident in the Montrouge area of the capital.
President Francois Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls met members of the victims’ families before the ceremony in the Cour d’Honneur of the Prefecture de Police.
During the ceremony, Mr Hollande said, “In the name of the French Republic we make you a Chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur” as he pinned a medal to a blue cushion on top of the coffins of each of the victims.
He then told assembled family members, political leaders and the victims’ colleagues that the three officers "died so that we can live in freedom".
Addressing family members directly, he said: “The whole of France shares your sorrow and your pain.”
The Gendamerie National later posted this image on Twitter:
#Hommage National à Ahmed, à Clarissa et à Franck, nos camarades policiers morts en service. #JeSuisPolicier pic.twitter.com/jFePAmnD2x— GendarmerieNationale (@Gendarmerie) January 13, 2015
Today @fhollande has led a ceremony honouring the three police officers killed in last week's attacks. #Charliehebdo pic.twitter.com/626tpCsFip— France Diplomacy (@francediplo_EN) January 13, 2015
A national ceremony for all victims of the attacks will be held at Les Invalides next week.
Today’s ceremony for the police officers in Paris was held a few hours after the bodies of four Jewish victims of the Paris attacks were repatriated to Israel for burial.
Yoav Hattab, 21, Yohan Cohen, 20 Philippe Braham, 40, and Francois-Michel Saada, 64, will be buried in Jerusalem’s Givat Shaul cemetery in a ceremony attended by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and other public figures.
Photo: Screengrab / France 2
