The individuals — three of whom were tried in absentia — were convicted of crimes including membership in a criminal network and complicity in the massacre at the publication and at a kosher market.

The increased friction follows the beheading of a French teacher after he showed his class caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad. The two countries have sharp foreign policy differences.

The attack was carried out on Friday in apparent response to a lesson about freedom of expression that showed the students cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

Thousands of demonstrators gathered in solidarity in French cities on Sunday, as the number of people detained in connection with the history teacher's beheading rose to 11.

An arrest has been made in the incident outside the building where a dozen people were gunned down in 2015 in apparent retaliation for the publication of cartoons that satirized the Prophet Muhammad.

The satirical weekly, whose Paris offices were stormed by Islamist extremists who killed several staff members, will reprint the controversial cartoons that apparently sparked the attack.