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According to sources close to the investigation, who confirm a BFMTV revelation, the killer, an 18-year-old teenager of Chechen origin, spoke on WhatApp with the student’s father, who made his phone number public on Facebook on October 8. together with a recording that urges the mobilization against Samuel Paty. The sources did not provide details on the content of those messages.
The 48-year-old, who has not been officially named, is accused of launching a “fatwa” (Islamic religious law) against the teacher who was killed near a school in a Paris suburb after his daughter witnessed the presentation of the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. The Muslim father posted several videos on Facebook, including a dialogue with a radical Islamist, and revealed the name of the teacher and the location of the school.
The attacker, an 18-year-old boy of Chechen origin, a refugee who has lived in France since the age of 6, was shot to death by the police shortly after the murder.
French Foreign Minister Gérald Darmanin said the student’s father and the preacher described by the French press as a radical Islamist had been arrested and were being investigated for “murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise.”
The former exchanged text messages with the killer before the attack near the school where the teacher taught in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a northwestern suburb of Paris.
On Monday, French police conducted a series of searches on Islamist networks, and some 40 houses have so far been inspected. President Macron will be informed on Tuesday about the results of the investigations carried out so far.
The French interior minister said 51 Muslim organizations in France, including NGOs and foundations, would be investigated and shut down if they are found to be promoters of hatred.
16 people were arrested in connection with the crime, including the killer’s grandfather, parents and brother, as well as four students. Minister Darmanin also said that 80 people who sent messages in support of the assassination would be questioned.
On Tuesday, the French government closed a mosque north of Paris for a period of six months, as it shared videos on Facebook urging action against the history teacher and containing the school’s address. The mosque expressed regret over the videos, which it deleted in the meantime, condemning the teacher’s murder.
Darmanin said the mosque, located in a busy suburb of more than 1,500 believers, posted videos on its Facebook page just days before last Friday’s murder.
Samuel Paty, who gave a lesson on freedom of expression in the first week of October, presented the cartoons and once again received threats, said anti-terrorism prosecutor Jean-François Ricard. The teacher advised the Muslim students present at the lesson to leave the room if they were insulted by the cartoons. The French prosecutor said the killer asked the students at the school to tell him who the teacher was and then followed him and attacked him.
The Muslim community in France represents 10% of the population, being one of the largest in Europe.
“In France, the vast majority of Muslims share the philosophy of the republic. We want them to mobilize for the defense of democracy, as we want everyone to do,” French Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer told the BBC.
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