Printing plant where Charlie Hebdo killers died reopens
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A printing plant north of Paris reopened Thursday for the first time since it was badly damaged during a deadly standoff between police and two brothers who gunned down cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo newspaper.
President Francois Hollande presided over the re-opening in a sign of the national significance of the drama that unfolded there in January 2015. It was among a string of Islamic extremist attacks that have rocked France.
After visiting the now-rebuilt printing plant in the suburb town of Dammartin-en-Goele, Hollande honored the two men who were taken hostage that day with the Legion of Honor.
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Michel Catalano, owner of the plant, was released by the two heavily armed attackers nearly two hours into the police siege. Lilian Lepere, a graphic designer, remained hidden in a tiny space under a sink for more than eight hours before an elite unit killed the two hostage-takers and released him.
Hollande hailed the "two French citizens who have shown the greatest courage" in the face of a fearsome ordeal. He said the printing plant was both a "symbol of barbarism" and a "symbol of what the human will is able to do" in rebuilding a nearly destroyed plant and reviving a suddenly halted business.
"We are always threatened by terrorism," Hollande said during the ceremony.
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Catalano, who gave a first aid to a wounded attacker, said that "barbarism will not make me head down" in a moving speech, his voice breaking with emotion and with tears in his eyes.
"It's a constant struggle against myself. Actually it's a struggle I've been going through for the past 20 months," he told The Associated Press. "There are difficult times but I know we can overcome that, and this is the image I want to give."
The two attackers, brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, led police on a two-day manhunt after attacking Charlie Hebdo, then hid out in the printing plant. Police surrounded the building and the brothers were killed in a shootout after a day-long siege. At the same time, another attacker, Amedy Coulibaly, was taking more hostages in a kosher supermarket in Paris. He was also killed when police raided the store.
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The attacks that week on Charlie Hebdo, police and the kosher market killed 17 people.