First 'Charlie Hebdo' issue since attack sells out

Kim Hjelmgaard | Special for USA TODAY

PARIS — The first edition of Charlie Hebdo since terror attacks in Paris last week left 17 people dead sold out at newsstands across France shortly after going on sale Wednesday.

Residents in Paris formed lines at dawn and by mid-morning kiosks sported signs that said "No more Charlie Hebdo" and "Out of stock." Local French media reported scuffles broke out as people realized copies were selling quickly. A black market quickly developed, with copies selling on eBay for thousands of dollars. One auction ended Wednesday evening with a bid of $20,000.

"Normally they sit in a box in front of the kiosk and you just help yourself — and normally, the Charlie Hebdo box always has some copies in it," said Marie Dupont, 22, who was passing through Gare du Nord train station on her way to work in Paris.

Wednesday's 16-page issue of the satirical newspaper featured a cartoon on its cover depicting the prophet Mohammed. He is crying and holding a sign in his hands that says, "Je suis Charlie" ("I am Charlie") — a reference to the slogan adopted by anti-violence and free speech campaigners in the wake of the attacks. It is forbidden under Islam to show images depicting the prophet.

Three million copies were printed — 60,000 are usually published— and that may be extended to 5 million, local French media reported. It has been translated into six languages and is being distributed internationally for the first time.

A week ago, gunmen linked to radical Islam murdered eight staff members at the newspaper along with four other people. Five more people were killed in separate attacks on a policewoman Thursday and at a kosher supermarket Friday.

Benoit Redureau, a veterinarian in Paris, called the cover "cheeky" and also "very brave.'

"Their cover is militant, they don't let go, despite the pressure, despite the dead, they remain loyal to their (editorial) line, to their soul…to what we like about them," said Redureau.

Another Parisian, Yann Legall, 58, called the issue funny as well as sincere but also restrained.

"I wonder: did they refrain themselves? Did they go half-measure on this publication? They could have gone a lot further on this, when you have people who get executed like dogs, they could have done something more drastic, they could have been accusatory,'' Legall said.

On pages two and three of the newspaper Wednesday were drawings created by four cartoonists killed in the attack. One by Bernard "Tignous" Verlhac depicts two Muslim jihadists with one saying: "We shouldn't attack Charlie Hebdo people." The other replies: "(yeah), they will become martyrs and once in paradise, will steal all our virgins."

American Muslims object to new 'Charlie Hebdo' cover A spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation's largest Muslim civil liberties group, says 'Charlie Hebdo' has every right to publish what they want, but Muslims have the right to peacefully object.

Distributors said they would try to get more copies by Thursday or even later Wednesday. Printer Messageries Lyonnaises de Presse decided to increase the print run following the fast depletion of stock, French daily Le Figaro reported.

"I feel very concerned over what happened (to Charlie Hebdo) and I want to read what the surviving journalists wrote this week," said Anne Brisson, 59, trying to get a copy. "Still, it's the type of collective craziness in which I don't want to take part — it's like suddenly there is no more sugar so everyone buys 10 kilograms of sugar for the next 10 years."

Fabrice Perticoz, 48, who was manning a Paris newsstand, echoed many others selling the magazine Wednesday when describing how people lined up at 6:15 a.m. for his 120 copies. "By 6:45, they were all sold out," he said.

At his stand, a woman begged. "Please keep one for me tomorrow, I pay for it, really," she said. But Perticoz refused to take her money. "It gets too complicated, I might forget," he said. "One man wanted to call the cops claiming I refused to sell to him."

The publication of Charlie Hebdo's controversial new cover comes as France's government was preparing tougher anti-terror laws. The French government announced Wednesday that 54 people had been detained in a crackdown on hate speech, anti-Semitism and glorifying terrorism.

Among those arrested was Dieudonne, a controversial but popular comic who defended terrorism in comments posted on Facebook earlier this week.

In Turkey, police searched trucks carrying the entire print run of the daily Cumhuriyet newspaper early Wednesday to make sure none of the newspapers reprinted cartoons from Charlie Hebdo that depicted the prophet Mohammed.

"When the police proceed to check in advance the copies without a clear decision of the court, I think it is an alarming procedure reflecting perfectly disproportional interference in press freedom in Turkey," said Erol Onderoglu, a Reporters Without Borders representative in Turkey.

In a separate development, al-Qaeda in Yemen on Wednesday reiterated claims of responsibility for the attack on Charlie Hebdo.

The group released a video in which Nasr al-Ansi, a top commander of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP as the branch is known, said the attack by Said and Chérif Kouachi on the Paris newspaper was in retaliation for insulting the prophet Mohammed.

The video was briefly available on YouTube before being taken down. Last week, the same group released a statement to the Associated Press in which it claimed responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo killings.

In the video, Al-Ansi says France is part of the "party of Satan" and warns of further "tragedies and terror." Al-Ansi says Yemen's al-Qaeda branch "chose the target, laid out the plan and financed the operation."

Amedy Coulibaly, who held hostages at the Jewish supermarket, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in a video released Sunday.

Contributing: Jacob Resneck in Istanbul; Kim Hjelmgaard in London