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Police arrested nine people following a murder Friday in the typically quiet western suburb of Paris, Konflan Saint Honorine, which President Emmanuel Macron called an Islamist terrorist attack.
The attacker was shot dead by police and later died from his injuries.
Police said the victim is history teacher Samuel Paty, who recently showed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a class discussion on freedom of expression, sparking outrage from some parents. He was killed around 5pm local time (6pm Lithuanian) near the school where he worked.
Police initially detained four relatives of the suspect, two brothers and a grandfather, for questioning.
A source in the AFP court said on Saturday that five more people were also detained, including the parents of a child at Paty’s school.
According to a source who asked not to be identified, these parents had expressed their disagreement with the teacher’s decision to show the cartoons.
Other new detainees belong to the suspect’s social circle but are not members of his family.
The teacher was killed in Konflan Saint Honorine, about 30 km from the center of Paris, as a follow-up to the court of accomplices in the bloody 2015 attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Charlie Hebdo angered many Muslims around the world by publishing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Before the trial, the magazine republished the cartoons in September, and a few weeks ago, a young Pakistani wounded two people in a meat grinder at a former publishing office in Paris who he thought was working there.
Charlie Hebdo has expressed “horror and disgust” at Friday’s attack on the social network Twitter.
“Disaster of darkness”
Identity documents found with the suspect show that he was born in Moscow to an 18-year-old from the Chechen region of Russia.
According to an AFP source in the police, the attacker, surrounded by officials, shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greater than all). These words are often heard during jihadist attacks.
BFMTV previously reported that the alleged killer was born in Moscow in 2002, according to its sources.
According to television, the 18-year-old was not in the spotlight of either the police or the antiterrorist service.
A source close to the investigation said there was no indication in the past that the suspect could be radicalized.
French prosecutors against terrorism have said they are investigating the crime as a “murder linked to a terrorist organization.”
Police said they were investigating a Twitter message posted from a now-closed account that included a photo of the head of a murdered teacher.
It is not yet clear whether the message, which also threatened French President Macron, calling him a “leader of the infidels”, was delivered by an attacker.
Macron, who visited the scene of the incident, said that the teacher’s murder was characterized by the “Islamist terrorist attack.”
The president, who was clearly dismayed, also told reporters that “the entire nation” was ready to defend the teachers, adding that “darkness would not prevail.”
As my son says, he was super good, super friendly, super nice.
The Elysee Palace announced Saturday that a “national” tribute to Paty would be held, but did not specify a date.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, expressed her condolences to the family of the murdered teacher and to the French people.
“I am also thinking of teachers in France and across Europe. Without them, there are no citizens. Without them, there is no democracy,” he wrote in French on Twitter.
“Super friendly and nice”
The parents and teachers of the murdered teacher’s students paid tribute to S. Paty, who was a favorite and had children of her own. It is said that he was in his fifties.
“As my son says, he was super good, super friendly, super nice,” Nordine Chaouadi told AFP.
“It just came to our knowledge then [mokytoją] I saw that he came to my class to see our teacher. It’s shocking not to see him again, “said sixth-grade student Tiago.
„[Mokytojas] He simply told Muslim children, “Come out, I don’t want to capture your feelings.” That’s what the son told me, “Chououadi said.
According to the sources, among those detained is a father who posted a video on social media saying he was shocked by the decision to show cartoons of a “naked” prophet in his daughter’s class.
Rodrigo Arenas, director of the FCPE parents’ association, said that he had received a complaint from a “very excited” father.
However, Arren noted that the teacher had asked the Muslim students to leave the classroom before showing the cartoons if they so desired.
Police arrived at the scene after receiving a report of a suspicious person hacking near the school, a police source said.
There, officers found a dead man and, about 200 meters away, saw a suspect armed with a knife-like object. That person threatened the police.
Officers began shooting and wounding him, and he later died from the injuries he sustained.
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