The wife of one of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists murdered during the Paris terror attacks earlier this year is bringing legal action to identify failings in the security response.

Maryse Wolinski, whose husband Georges was one of those killed when two gunmen attacked the magazine’s offices in January, has reportedly started civil proceedings in France that will give her access to police files.

She told the French radio station RTL that she believed the police response was inadequate and she wanted to know the truth about how her husband died.

She is asking a judge to order an investigation into the response of the police, an inquiry that would not otherwise be carried out as a matter of course. The claim could lead to a criminal investigation into any failings identified.

Wolinski, a 72-year-old journalist, told RTL she wanted to understand the circumstances surrounding the attack, including the security arrangements.

“I’m not angry with those who are left behind, I am angry in general about what has happened. Were there failings? Yes, of course. Why was there no [police] van? Why did the GIGN (an elite armed police unit) not turn up?



“There were numerous phone calls from different people in the building before the [gunmen] arrived at the editorial office. Therefore, one wonders why it was three officers on bicycles who arrived when the reports were of two armed men wearing hoods and masks,” she said.

She said she would examine the police investigation files, which should be released to her within days, with her lawyer before deciding how to proceed.

A spokesman for the French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, did not respond to a request for comment. The French prime minister, Manuel Valls, said he “understood that the victims’ families had questions”, adding that it was “their right to know the truth”.