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The French Public Prosecutor’s Office reported that the history teacher who was beheaded the day before in Paris received threats online before his murder for showing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad to his students in class.
Attorney General Jean-Francois Ricard said at a televised press conference on Saturday that the father of one of the students demanded the dismissal of the 47-year-old teacher, Samuel Patti, and launched an online call to “act” on his against after class on “freedom of speech”.
Patty was beheaded in front of her school in Conflans-Saint-Honorine, northwest of Paris, while the perpetrator died after being attacked by the police.
The Russian embassy in Paris identified the attacker as Abdullah Anzurov, whose family came to France when he was six years old and applied for asylum.
The embassy stated that the 18-year-old attacker obtained residency this year and had no connection to Russia.
Nine people were arrested, including the student’s father and another person who was on the list of people under surveillance by the French intelligence services.
Post “pornography”
The Public Ministry claimed that the school received threats after the class that took place in early October, during which the teacher showed the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). The schoolgirl’s father accused Patti of spreading “pornography.”
The student and her father filed a criminal complaint against the teacher, who in turn filed a complaint for his exposure to defamation, according to Ricard.
The father published Patti’s name and the school’s address in a social media post days before the assassination, which French President Emmanuel Macron described as an “Islamic terrorist attack.”
Earlier this week, he posted a video saying that Islam and Prophet Muhammad were “insulted” at school.
Ricard did not clarify whether the attacker had any connection to the school, students or parents, or whether he acted independently in response to the online campaign.
Eyewitnesses reported that they saw him at the school on Friday afternoon asking for Patty’s whereabouts.
To confess
Ricard said a photo of the teacher’s body, which the attacker posted on Twitter, accompanied by a message admitting his murder, was found on a phone next to his body after police killed him. He added that the account belonged to the attacker.
Twitter quickly deleted the post and said it closed the account for violating company policy.
According to Ricard, the message read: “In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful … To (President Emmanuel) Macron, the leader of the infidels, you executed one of your dogs of hell who dared and underestimated (to the Prophet) Muhammad “.
The Attorney General stated that the attacker was carrying a knife, a compressed air rifle and ammunition. He shot at the police and tried to stab the officers as they moved to surround him, before shooting him nine times.
This is the second attack of its kind since trial sessions began last month for alleged accomplices of the perpetrators of the January 2015 attack that targeted the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which published insulting cartoons of the prophet. Muhammad, unleashing a wave of anger in the Islamic world.
The newspaper reprinted the cartoons on September 1, at the beginning of court sessions.
Last month, a 25-year-old Pakistani man carried out a machete attack in front of the former headquarters of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris, leaving two seriously injured.
Among those detained were four close relatives of the attacker and two people who, according to the police, were in contact with him, according to the Public Ministry.
Police also arrested a friend of the student’s father, who went with him to see the principal and demand that Patty be fired.
The aforementioned friend was originally on the French intelligence services list of people under surveillance as a “militant Islamist.” Ricard indicated that there was an arrest warrant for the student’s half-sister, who joined the ranks of ISIS in Syria.
“I’m a teacher”
But the attorney general made it clear that the attacker himself was unknown to French intelligence services.
Macron sparked anger among Muslims this month when he said Islam was facing a “crisis” while unveiling a plan to uphold France’s secular values.
The president visited the crime scene on Friday and promised that “the entire nation” will support the teachers to “protect and defend them”, adding that “the dark will not triumph.” On Saturday, her office announced a “national memory” ceremony for Patti.
On Sunday, the ministers that make up the French Defense Council will meet to discuss the assassination, while the duel is expected to take place on Wednesday.
On Saturday, hundreds of students, teachers and parents flocked to Patti School where they laid out white roses.
Some carried banners reading “I am a teacher” and “I am Samuel”, recalling the “I am Charlie” slogans raised around the world after the attack on the Charlie Hebdo headquarters in 2015.
