Five years after three days of terror, which sent shock waves through France, fourteen people accused of helping jihadist gunmen storm the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket went on trial Wednesday, reported AFP.

The events that began on January 7, 2015 sparked a series of attacks on French soil, including “lone wolf” killings by people said to be inspired by the Islamic State group that have since claimed more than 250 lives.

Security was beefed up as eleven of the suspects appeared in the courtroom for hearing. They are facing charges of conspiracy in a terrorist act or association with a terror group.

Three others, including the wife of one of the gunmen, fled to IS-held territory in Syria days before the attacks and are being tried in absentia.

Charlie Hebdo, a French weekly whose taboo-shattering style makes it a beacon of free speech for many, marked the trial’s opening by republishing cartoons of the prophet Mohammed.

“That’s the essence of the Charlie Hebdo spirit: It’s refusing to give up our freedoms, our laughter, and even our blasphemy,” the paper’s lawyer, Richard Malka, said before entering the courtroom.

“Don’t be afraid, neither of terrorism, nor of freedom.”

Over the next two and a half months, some 150 experts and witnesses will be heard in the trial that will revisit one of the most painful chapters in France’s modern history.

The three assailants were killed by police, but any suggestion that those on trial were only minor players has been rubbished by prosecutors and relatives of the victims.

“These people aren’t lackeys,” said Patrick Klugman, a lawyer for one of the victims, insisting the suspects shared a deep-seated anti-Semitism.