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Police have confirmed that 47-year-old history teacher Samuel Paty had his throat slit during the attack and that he had recently shown students a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad.
The alleged perpetrator was found near the victim and was equipped with a knife and an alleged soft pistol. According to police, he was shot dead when he resisted arrest and behaved in a threatening manner.
The identity of the perpetrator has not been officially confirmed, but according to a source from the French prosecution service, he is an 18-year-old man of Chechen origin, born in Moscow.
During the attack, the attacker allegedly shouted “Allahu akbar”, which in Arabic means “God is the greatest”.
Police sources inform the AP that the teacher had been threatened after having encouraged a debate on the cartoons ten days ago.
Nine people in questioning
A total of nine people have been brought in for questioning after the murder, including the parents of one of the children where the murdered teacher taught. They are said to have expressed dissatisfaction with the teacher showing a caricature of Muhammad.
Heartbroken schoolchildren gathered Saturday at the scene where 47-year-old history teacher Samuel Paty was murdered in Paris. Photo: Michel Euler / AP
The 17-year-old brother, parents and grandfather of the alleged attacker have also been arrested and are now being questioned, the French prosecutor for counterterrorism states.
The police are investigating the murder as a terrorist attack.
“Islamist terrorist attack”
French President Emmanuel Macron visited the site on Friday night and declared the attack an “Islamist terrorist attack.”
– One of our compatriots was killed today because he taught about freedom of expression, the freedom to believe or not to believe, Macron said clearly marked.
The president further said that the attack should not divide France because that is exactly “what the extremists are looking for.”
– We must all unite as citizens, he said.
A large police demonstration gathered outside the school where a history teacher who had shown cartoons of Muhammad while teaching on free speech was stabbed to death on Friday. An alleged perpetrator was shot dead by the police. Photo: Michel Euler / AP
Norwegian conviction
Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide (H) also reacts strongly to the murder.
– Serious and cruel news about the terrorist act in France. We must unite against attacks on freedom of thought and enlightenment. My thoughts go out to the victim’s loved ones, colleagues and students, she tweets.
Prime Minister Erna Solberg published one Twitter message with the same text, while the Minister of Education and Integration Guri Melby (V) describes the murder as “an attack on all teachers and school personnel who inform and challenge their students every day.”
– But they cannot kill knowledge or stop ideas. Therefore, the backbone of an enlightened society is our teachers, journalists, researchers, writers, artists, and all who pass on knowledge and allow us to think for ourselves, says Melby in a comment.
Charlie Hebdo Trial
Parallel to the murder of Samuel Paty, a trial is underway in the wake of the terrorist attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris in 2015, in which twelve people died.
The reason Charlie Hebdo became the target of the attack was that the satire magazine had published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad several times.
It must have been one of those cartoons that Paty showed to the class, supposedly after first asking those who followed him to violate those cartoons to leave the classroom.
Police are stopping traffic near the site where a history professor was beheaded on the outskirts of Paris on Friday. The case is being investigated as an act of terrorism. Photo: Michel Euler / AP
Meat ax
The incident is reminiscent of an attack that took place in the French capital at the end of September when two men from a television production company were attacked with a meat ax in front of the former Charlie Hebdo facility. They were seriously injured but survived.
A 25-year-old Pakistani has been charged in connection with the attack. On questioning, he is said to have justified the act with the publication of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad in the satire magazine.
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