One of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo's founding members has criticised its editor, who was shot dead by gunmen last Wednesday, for “dragging the team” to their deaths by publishing provocative cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed.

80-year-old Henri Roussel, whose work appeared in the magazine’s inaugural issue in 1970, said he had written to its editor Stéphane ‘Charb’ Charbonnier over his decision to publish the controversial drawings, and told him: “I really hold it against you.”

The Telegraph is reporting that Mr Roussel, in reference to the magazine’s 2011 drawing of the Prophet Mohamed, wrote in this week's French magazine Nouvel Obs: “What made him feel the need to drag the team into overdoing it?”

The front cover features the Prophet Mohamed with the words: “100 lashes of the whip if you don’t die laughing!” under the banner Charia Hebdo, a play on Sharia Law. The cartoon prompted a firebomb attack in the magazine’s offices which were burned down by unidentified arsonists.

“I believe that we are fools who took an unnecessary risk. That’s it. We think we are invulnerable. For years, decades even, it was a provocation and then one day the provocation turns against us.

“He shouldn’t have done it, but Charb did it again a year later, in September 2012,” he added.