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Four school pupils charged over the beheading of French teacher

AFP
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Four school pupils charged over the beheading of French teacher
A memorial to Samuel Paty in Conflans-Saint-Honorine, the town where he taught. Photo: AFP

Four teenage students have been charged in France over the killing of Samuel Paty, a judicial source said on Thursday, including three for allegedly pointing out the teacher to his murderer.

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Three other pupils were charged earlier this month with complicity over the beheading last month of Paty, who had shown his students cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed as part of a lesson on free speech.

Three of the four students charged Thursday were suspected of identifying Paty to his killer, 18-year-old Abdullakh Anzorov, who then tracked him down and beheaded him in a street near his school.

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The three, who are between 13 and 14 years old, are being charged with "complicity in a terrorist murder," the source said.

The fourth is the daughter of a man who launched a virulent online campaign against Paty denouncing the teacher's use of the cartoons published by satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.

She has been charged with "slanderous denunciation" of Paty after relating her version of events in the classroom, though she did not actually attend his civics lesson.

Paty's murder sparked a torrent of outrage that prompted President Emmanuel Macron to crack down on Islamist extremism and violence in a country reeling from a wave of jihadist attacks since 2015 that have killed more than 250 people.

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Anonymous 2020/11/26 21:29
Totally agree with you Nick-Nack.
Anonymous 2020/11/26 19:20
Good, though I'm not sure that adult responsibility should be accorded to children who are only just teenagers, no matter the behaviour of other cultures. The parents of the pupils, who promoted this sickening violence, though should be held fully responsible and preferably removed from the country.
Anonymous 2020/11/26 17:26
As disrespectful that some muslims are towards the chrisitian faith, they now want us to remove this equal footing or respect of each other. This makes this respect much harder. Decapitation is not normal. This has the aspect of lumping all muslims in with the terrorists. Which many people are loath to do. They are our friends and co-workers. But these terrorists are going to involve all muslims one way or the other. And the outcome will not be good for anyone. If you want me to respect you, then you must also respect me. And I do not hear that comming from anyone in any quarters. But I know amongst my muslim friends that this is NOT the case. I wish they would speak out. Silence equals complicity and acceptance.

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