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Sunday, October 18, 2020
The murder of a teacher by an Islamist hits France to the core. The sympathy is huge. Several people close to the alleged perpetrator are now in police custody.
In France, numerous solidarity demonstrations are expected across the country following the alleged terrorist murder of a teacher. The editors of the satirical magazine “Charlie Hebdo” called a demonstration in Paris on Sunday afternoon, along with the SOS Racisme organization and the teachers’ unions. Also in many other cities like Marseille or Bordeaux, people want to go out on the streets. The brutal murder of the teacher had caused horror throughout France. According to the prosecution, the author’s alleged motive was cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. The teacher had shown them in class a few weeks ago on the subject of freedom of expression.
According to the prosecutor’s office, the perpetrator, who was born in Moscow in 2002 and had Russian-Chechen roots, bragged about it online after the crime. He posted a photo of the victim and sent a message to French President Emmanuel Macron, whom he described as the “leader of the infidels.” “I executed one of your hellhounds who dared to look down on Mohammed,” he wrote, according to the prosecutor. Since then, the Twitter account has been blocked. The perpetrator was shot and killed by the police shortly after the crime.
The father of a schoolgirl incited against the teacher
Several people close to the alleged perpetrator were in police custody on Saturday. The father of a schoolgirl who had mobilized online against the teacher after he showed the Mohammed cartoons was also arrested. He distributed a video and publicly criticized the teacher, as prosecutor Jean-François Ricard said. The father asked the principal to fire the teacher and was accompanied by a man who, according to the media, is a known Islamist. He is also in police custody. The father’s half sister has joined the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS). The prosecutor has not yet established a connection between this father and the abuser.
Already on Saturday there were expressions of solidarity for the murdered teacher in numerous cities. People gathered under the motto “Je suis Prof” (Eng. I’m a teacher) based on “Je suis Charlie”. The slogan was coined after the devastating murder attack on the editorial staff of “Charlie Hebdo” in 2015. Just a few weeks ago, a man in front of the old editorial building brutally attacked two people with a knife. He also gave the reason for the cartoons of Muhammad that the magazine had published. The attacker was actually targeting the editorial office, but did not know that in the meantime he had moved to a secret location.
The teacher was brutally murdered on Friday afternoon in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, near a school. There the attacker killed the 47-year-old man after ambushing him. His body was found decapitated with numerous wounds to the upper body and head. Investigators also found a blood-stained knife more than 12 inches long near the crime scene.
The alleged attacker lived with his family as a refugee in France and has had a residence permit since spring, which is valid until 2030. He lived in Evreux about 90 kilometers from the crime scene and was previously unknown to the secret services. The prosecutor did not provide information on how long the alleged attacker and his family have lived in France. The brutal attack hits France amid the second corona wave, which has hit the country hard. On Wednesday there will be a national memorial service for the teacher. President Macron described the act as an Islamist-motivated attack.
