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Five days have passed since the murder of the teacher Samuel Paty in the Parisian suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, and the image of what happened begins to clear.
The murderer, an 18-year-old Moscow-born man of Chechen origin, did not live in the area, but two students from the school helped him identify the victim. After attacking Samuel Paty with what is described as a meat ax, the 18-year-old is said to have posted a photo of Paty’s severed head on Twitter. Next to the text: “Macron, the leader of the infidels, I have executed one of your hellhounds, who dared to disparage Muhammad.”
The incident is being investigated as a terrorist crime, and seven people were requested Wednesday into custody for their involvement. Among them are two students, ages 14 and 15, who for a fee must have agreed to point out the teacher, despite the 18-year-old saying that he intended to “beat up” and “humiliate” Paty.
The author was shot and killed by the police shortly after the event.
Among the others the prosecutor wants to bring to justice are three friends of the killer, a well-known Islamist activist and the father of a girl who attended a class taught by Samuel Paty.
Relatives and colleagues hold a portrait of the murdered teacher Samuel Paty during a demonstration in his memory in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.
Photo: Bertrand Guay / AFP
The girl must have been upset when she learned that Paty was going to show the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The intention was to have them as the basis for a debate on freedom of expression. Muslim students were allowed to leave the classroom if they thought they might be offended. However, according to the prosecutor, the girl was not present on the day the drawings were shown.
In retrospect, the girl has claimed that she was forced to watch the cartoons, something her father repeated in a movie where the teacher was hanged with his name and workplace. The professor was also attacked on social media by Islamist activist Abdelhakim Sefrioui, who accompanied the father to a meeting with the principal on October 8.
According to information from the French press, the father must have been in contact with the murderer through WhatsApp. He denies that the 18-year-old said anything about his assassination plans. Both phones are under investigation by the police.
According to information from the French press, the father must have been in contact with the murderer through WhatsApp. He denies that the 18-year-old said anything about his assassination plans. Both phones are under investigation by the police.
The murder has led to large demonstrations for freedom of expression and support for the work of teachers. President Emmanuel Macron, for his part, has promised to crack down on what he calls separatism, which in practice means radical Islamism.
Ahead of a memorial service for Samuel Paty on Wednesday, where the teacher was to receive the words of the Legion of Honor posthumously, the president said that “now evil has been given a name.”
“We will continue to take action against organizations and individuals who pursue a radical Islamist project, that is, the ideology that wants to destroy the republic,” Macron said.
So far, the government has decided to dissolve an association founded by Sefrioui, which is close to Palestinian Hamas, and shut down a mosque in a Paris suburb that has shared posts that incited the teacher on Facebook.
“For too long, so-called cultural associations have been Trojan horses for Islamism, giving it access to religious premises and clandestine schools,” said Gabriel Attal, a spokesman for the French government.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin He also hinted Tuesday that he would like to avoid seeing halal meat in French grocery stores.
– I have always been concerned about the fact that there are special departments in grocery stores for different types of ‘community’ food. This is how it starts, I think, said the Interior Minister, who emphasized that this was his personal opinion and that no change in the law was planned for the moment.
The interior minister has also said that he wants to dissolve at least two large Muslim organizations, whose links to the killing of teachers are unclear.
Mourning French flag at the Elysee Palace in Paris, in honor of the murdered teacher Samuel Paty.
Photo: Ludovic Marin / AFP
– Our country is based on freedoms, and some of the measures and bills that are talked about now are probably mostly propaganda. Any new law must be weighed against freedom of expression, association and religion, recalls lawyer Clotilde Lepetit in an interview with the television channel LCI.
President Macron is well aware that his main rival in the 2022 presidential elections, the right-wing Marine Le Pen, is mobilizing and demanding the imposition of a state of emergency in France, the establishment of “laws of war” against Islamism. and the arrest and deportation or deportation of all suspected Islamists in the country.
Radical groups on both sides are pushing for more polarization. The daily La Nouvelle République declared on Wednesday that threats had been made against the newsroom, after it published a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad on the front page. At the same time, increased police surveillance of the mosques in Bordeaux and Béziers, which had been threatened with arson, was ordered.
