UPDATE - France: Weekly with Nice attack images not pulled

UPDATES WITH COURT DECISION, CHNAGES HEADLINE

By Hajer M'tiri

PARIS (AA) - A court denied late on Thursday Paris’ chief prosecutor's request to "urgently" take a magazine off the newsstands for publishing graphic images of last year’s deadly Nice attack.

The court ruled Paris Match did not not need to pull the issue from newsstands but was forbidden from publishing it again.

Paris Match praised the decision in a statement.

"As the whole of France is about to pay tribute to the victims, Paris Match defends the right of citizens to be informed and to know the truth, and the right of the victims that we met to testify so that we do not forget them ," read the magazine statement.

Francois Molins had asked "the court to order the withdrawal of the edition" of the current issue of Paris Match weekly and to ban its “broadcasting in all formats, including digital," his office said earlier in a statement, adding that an investigation has begun over "violating the secrecy of an investigation.”

According to Europe 1 radio, Molins launched a last-minute injunction on Wednesday evening in a bid to prevent the magazine from printing screenshots from video surveillance of the Nice attack last July 14 that left 86 people dead and more than 450 wounded.

The magazine defended its decision to publish the images, saying it will defend "the right of the citizens, and first of all the right of the victims, to know what exactly happened during the attack."

Olivier Royant, Paris Match’s editorial director, said the shots were taken at a distance and did not identify the victims or impinge on their dignity and were no different from what other media outlets have made available.

Eric Morain, a lawyer for the victims’ group FENVAC, called the publication "illegal" and "sensationalist".

The mayor of the French Riviera city, Christian Estrosi, also denounced the publication, saying in a statement he had written to France's Justice Ministry.