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Secondary school teacher Samuel Paty (47) was beheaded and killed yesterday afternoon in the Conflans-Sainte-Honorine suburb on the outskirts of the French capital, Paris.
This is confirmed by the French police to Reuters.
The French authorities describe the murder as “Islamist terror”.
The teacher is said to have shown cartoons of Muhammad in connection with his teaching of freedom of expression in early October, and has since received threats, according to Le Parisien.
When the police arrived at the scene and discovered the gruesome murder, the alleged perpetrator was still at the scene. He was armed with a knife and an airsoft pistol, and is said to have acted threateningly towards the police.
He was then shot on the spot and later died from his injuries.
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– Born in Moscow
Several French media outlets now report that the alleged perpetrator is an 18-year-old Chechen born in Moscow in 2002, including Le Figaro, who refers to police officers.
The French authorities have the advantage of revealing the identity of the deceased perpetrator. The Russian embassy in Paris has also not confirmed that the perpetrator is a Russian-Chechen citizen, according to the Russian news agency Tass.
However, the embassy informs that it has asked the French authorities for more information and that they will help it if necessary.
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Timeline: the days before
Already on the very night that the beheading took place, it appears that the French authorities clearly saw that the murder was terror, and that the motive must be the French schoolmaster’s teaching plan.
Based on this, the French television channel BFMTV has compiled information about what happened in the days before the terror.
The timeline begins with the day the French teacher showed the Muhammad cartoon:
- October 5: The teacher teaches freedom of expression and this time presents a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad.
- October 8: the father of a school student reports the teacher to the police. An FAU leader at the school is also notified of an “extremely outraged parent.”
- October 12: The teacher is called for an interview and the police inform him of the complaint. The teacher must have then been surprised who the complaint came from, because the complainant should not have been the father of the students who actually participated in the class. Also, the teacher must have told the police about the class itself and how he should have allowed students who did not want to participate to be released. On the basis of the report against him, the professor himself chose to file a defamation report.
- October 16: The teacher is beheaded in the open air.
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Must have shared a photo
The murder took place in the open air around 5 p.m. on Friday, not far from the corresponding high school where the teacher taught.
Police were called to the scene after witnesses saw the now-deceased perpetrator sneaking through the area with a large, bloody knife. When the police arrived, he refused to carry out orders and was eventually shot.
AFP: Al-Qaeda threatens Charlie Hebdo employees
Meanwhile, a photo of the beheaded teacher has been shared on Twitter, several French media report. They also write that the police are investigating whether the image is real or whether it was the author himself who shared the image.
Dagbladet has seen the current Twitter post, which consists of an image and accompanying text, but cannot verify either the image or the text. The text, which pays tribute to Allah and the Prophet Muhammad, also mentions French President Emmanuel Macron.
So far, the French police have brought in nine people in connection with the investigation. Already yesterday, four people were brought in, all of whom are supposed to belong to the 18-year-old’s family. Today, another five were brought.
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“Islamist terrorist attack”
French President Emmanuel Macron visited the site on Friday night and described the attack as 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 be united as citizens, he said.
It has not been many weeks since Macron, in a speech to the French people, spoke out against what he described as “Islamic separatism” in France.
The president supported the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in connection with the trial against 14 people accused of complicity in the attack on the magazine and a Jewish supermarket.
“Now when the trial for the January 2015 attacks begins, it will be French to protect the right to make people laugh, the freedom to mock and make cartoons,” Macron said.
The president affirmed that freedom in France is also the freedom to believe, but also not to believe, which is inseparable from freedom of expression and the right to blasphemy.
– we are not like that
Russian politician Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the International Committee of the International Council, calls the incident “outrageous.”
For the Ekho Moskvy radio channel, he advocates for large-scale investigations if it turns out that the perpetrator is a Chechen and therefore a Russian citizen.
– He is not Chechen and he is not Russian, regardless of what his documents show. We are not like that, neither in Chechnya nor in the other republics of the Russian Federation, says Kosachev.
