Charlie Hebdo magazine's next issue to include cartoons of Prophet Mohammed

This week's issue of Charlie Hebdo will contain cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed and the front cover will be unveiled tonight, the magazine's lawyer confirmed today.

The surviving members of the magazine's staff decided to print images of the holy figure in defiance of Muslim extremists who slaughtered their colleagues on Wednesday last week.

Lawyer Richard Malka said this week's issue, which is expected to sell 1million copies when it comes out in two days's time, will 'of course' contain images of the Prophet.

Mr Malka told France Info radio: 'We will not give in. The spirit of 'Je suis Charlie' means the right to blaspheme.

'We will not give in otherwise all this won't have meant anything. A Je Suis Charlie banner means you have the right to criticise my religion, because it's not serious.

'We have never criticised a Jew because he's a Jew, a Muslim because he's a Muslim or a Christian because he's a Christian.

'But you can say anything you like, the worst horrors – and we do – about Christianity, Judaism and Islam, because behind the nice slogans, that's the reality of Charlie Hebdo.'

Brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi chose the publication as the target of their attack last week after it repeatedly published cartoons of Mohammed, which some Muslims find deeply offensive.

The magazine once renamed itself 'Sharia Hebdo', claimed to be guest edited by the Prophet and carried the cover slogan '100 lashes if you don't die laughing'.

Their offices were burned down after a petrol bomb attack in 2010, believed to be connected to the images, though on that occasion nobody was hurt.