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The history teacher who cut his neck in a Paris suburb on Friday had been threatened online after showing pictures of Muhammad in class.
A man lays flowers outside the school where the slain teacher was teaching in the Parisian suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine on Saturday. Photo: Michel Euler / AP / NTB
Distressed schoolchildren gathered Saturday at the scene where 47-year-old history teacher Samuel Paty was killed in Paris. Photo: AP / NTB
There was a large police demonstration outside the school where a history teacher who had shown cartoons of Muhammad while teaching on freedom of expression was stabbed to death on Friday. An alleged perpetrator was shot dead by the police. Photo: Muchel Euler / AP / NTB
A police car drives through barricades near the site where a history teacher was killed in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine on Friday. Photo: Michel Euler / AP / NTB
The father of one of Samuel Pathy’s students, 47, demanded his dismissal and launched an online campaign to “mobilize” against him after the controversial freedom of expression hour. This is what Jean-François Ricard affirms in the French prosecution.
An 18-year-old man of Chechen origin is said to have been behind the stabbing, according to the prosecution. He was found near the victim and was equipped with a knife and an alleged soft gun. According to police, he was shot dead when he resisted arrest and behaved in a threatening manner.
The Russian embassy in Paris states that the suspect is Abdullakh Anzorov. His family came to France seeking asylum when Anzorov was six years old and this year he had been granted a residence permit.
According to the embassy, the 18-year-old no longer had formal ties to Russia.
Threats
Nine people have been detained for questioning after the murder, which has rocked France. Among them are both the student’s father and a known Islamist.
He is also the 17-year-old brother, parents and grandfather of the attacker, the French prosecutor for anti-terrorist states.
Ricard says the school received threats after the free speech class in early October. Pary is said to have displayed several controversial cartoons, including a drawing depicting a naked Muhammad. The student’s father allegedly accused Paty of spreading “pornography.”
The schoolgirl and the father denounced the teacher, who in turn accused them of defamation, according to Ricard.
Just days before Friday’s murder, her father identified Pary and posted the school’s address on social media. Earlier this week, he also posted a video in which he claimed that Islam and the Prophet had been insulted at school.
Macron
French President Emmanuel Macron visited the site on Friday night and declared the attack an “Islamist terrorist attack.” French police opened a terrorism case shortly after the murder.
Investigators did not say on Saturday whether the attacker had any ties to the school, students or parents, or whether he had viewed the campaign online and acted as a result.
However, the alleged perpetrator is said to have stayed at the school on Friday afternoon and asked about Paty. A photo of the teacher and a message admitting to the murder were found on the 18-year-old’s phone.
– One of our compatriots was killed today because he taught about freedom of expression, the freedom to believe or not believe, said Macron clearly marked during the visit to the place.
The president further said that the attack should not divide France because that is exactly “what the extremists are looking for.”
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 these drawings that Paty showed to the class, supposedly after first asking those who followed him to violate such cartoons to leave the classroom.
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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