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PARIS: The Chechen teenager who beheaded a French teacher for displaying cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in class had been in contact with a father who was leading an online campaign against the victim, the investigation into the murder revealed on Tuesday (October 20) .
The breakthrough in the case came as President Emmanuel Macron vowed more pressure on Islamist extremism after days of drastic measures that resulted in more than a dozen arrests, a mosque was ordered closed and a pro-Hamas group disbanded. .
France will pay tribute on Wednesday to the 47-year-old history teacher who was beheaded on a broad daylight street in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a middle-class suburb of Paris, by the 18-year-old Chechen, who was born in Moscow and he had been living in France as a refugee.
“Our fellow citizens await action,” Macron said during a visit to a Paris suburb. “These actions will intensify.”
LEE: France closes the Paris mosque in repression for the beheading of a teacher
OFFICIAL MEMORIAL
Paty was attacked on Friday as she was returning home from the high school where she taught in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, 40 kilometers northwest of Paris.
On Wednesday evening, Macron will attend an official memorial with Paty’s family and some 400 guests at the Sorbonne University, posthumously presenting the teacher with France’s highest award, the Legion of Honor.
Paty had been the target of an online hate campaign ever since she showed students cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during free speech class – the same images that sparked a bloody assault on officials of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo when they were originally published. Five years ago.
Seven people, including two minors, will appear before a counter-terrorism judge on Wednesday for possible charges in Paty’s case, a judicial source told AFP. Nine other people were released Tuesday night.
The killer, Abdullakh Anzorov, was shot dead by police shortly after the assault.
LEE: ‘Teaching yes, bleeding no’: France pays tribute to the beheaded teacher
DIRECTLY INVOLVED
A disgruntled father who had ignited anger over Paty’s lesson through messages on social media had exchanged WhatsApp messages with Anzorov in the days leading up to the murder.
The uploaded footage was widely shared, including by a mosque in the northern Paris suburb of Pantin.
The mosque’s director, M’hammed Henniche, said he had shared the video out of fear that Muslim children would be singled out in class.
But the government has now earmarked its mosque for a six-month closure, one of its most significant moves after days of raids and harsh rhetoric.
Macron said a pro-Hamas group called the Cheikh Yassine Collective would be disbanded for being “directly implicated” in the assassination, adding that a formal decision would be made at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
The group’s founder, radical Islamist Abdelhakim Sefrioui, is being detained by police for posting a video on YouTube insulting Paty.
Macron has also added an international dimension to his anti-extremism efforts, calling on his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to strengthen cooperation in the fight against terrorism during a phone call on Tuesday.
Russia has downplayed any association with the killer, saying Anzorov had never been in contact with his officials and had left the country more than a decade ago.
“A REAL WHIP”
Paty’s beheading was the second knife attack on behalf of the avenging prophet Muhammad since a trial began last month for the Charlie Hebdo murders in 2015, when 12 people, including cartoonists, were shot dead for publishing cartoons of Muhammad.
The role of social media platforms has returned to the spotlight after much of the anger against Paty was unleashed on Facebook.
Paty’s teaching colleagues said in a statement they were deeply concerned about the impact of social media, which they called “a real scourge” for their profession.
The government has pledged to create a new criminal offense that would punish anyone who endangers another person by posting their data online, and ministers held talks with French social media bosses on Tuesday to discuss the fight against “cyber- Islamism. “
The murder has sparked a torrent of emotion and solidarity in France, with tens of thousands of people taking part in demonstrations over the weekend across the country.
Parliament observed a minute of silence on Tuesday and thousands of people gathered for a silent march in honor of the teacher at Conflans-Sainte-Honorine that night.
The next edition of Charlie Hebdo, meanwhile, will include the headline “The Republic Beheaded” on its cover along with cartoons depicting various professions, the weekly said Tuesday.
“These murderers want to decapitate democracy itself,” reads the editorial, to be published on Wednesday.
