A founding member of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo has accused its slain editor, Stéphane Charbonnier or Charb, for "dragging the team" to their deaths.
The news comes on the heels of the latest edition of the magazine becoming a "hit" as millions of copies have been sold around the world.
Henri Roussel, 80, who was part of the first team of the satirical weekly in 1970, wrote an article blaming Charb for "crossing the line".
Roussel, referring to the slain editor of Charlie Hebdo, wrote in Nouvel Obs: "I really hold it against you," according to a report in The Telegraph.
The octogenarian, who publishes under the pen name of "Delfeil de Ton", wrote this week: "I know it's not done", but proceeds to criticise the former "boss" of the magazine.
Referring to Charb's decision to feature a Prophet Mohammed character on the magazine's cover in 2011, Roussel said: "What made him feel the need to drag the team into overdoing it. He shouldn't have done it, but Charb did it again a year later, in September 2012."
On 2 November, 2011, hurt by the provocative cartoons, radicals firebombed the office of Charlie Hebdo and also hacked its website.
Calling Charb an "amazing lad", he added that he was also a stubborn "blockhead".
This accussation sparked a furious reaction from Richard Malka, Charlie Hebdo's lawyer for the last 22 years.
Malka sent an angry message to Mathieu Pigasse, one of the owners of Nouvel Obs and Le Monde. "Charb has not yet even been buried and Obs finds nothing better to do that to publish a polemical and venomous piece on him."
He further wrote: "The other day, the editor of Nouvel Obs, Matthieu Croissandeau, couldn't shed enough tears to say he would continue the fight. I didn't know he meant it this way. I refuse to allow myself to be invaded by bad thoughts, but my disappointment is immense.".
The print run for the "survivors' edition" of the weekly has been extended to five million after the first run of Charile Hebdo sold out within hours.
