The French prime minister has joined thousands of demonstrators rallying in tribute to a history teacher who was brutally beheaded at a school near Paris for showing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed to his class.
Samuel Paty, 47, was brutally stabbed to death and beheaded by Aboulakh Anzorov, 18, in a northern suburb of the French capital on Friday afternoon.
In Paris, thousands including French Prime Minister Jean Castex gathered to pay tribute to the slain teacher in a defiant show of solidarity at the Place de la Republique.
Some held placards reading ‘I am Samuel’ that echoed the ‘I am Charlie’ rallying cry after the 2015 attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which published caricatures of Mohammed.
A moment’s silence was observed across the square, broken by applause and a rendition of La Marseillaise, the French national anthem. Others recited: ‘Freedom of expression, freedom to teach.’
Demonstrators also gathered in major cities including Lyon, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Nantes, Marseille, Lille and Bordeaux.
It has been revealed that Islamist terrorist Anzorov filmed himself killing and then beheading Paty outside the gates of his school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine before sharing a video of the victim’s severed head to fellow ISIS supporters.
It has also been revealed the half-sister of the Russian-born killer travelled to Syria to join ISIS in 2014 and was the subject of an anti-terror investigation.
Investigations are focusing on Brahim Chnina, father of a 13-year-old girl in Paty’s class, who denounced the teacher online and gave details of the school. He has since been arrested.
Branding Mr Paty a thug in a video posted on Twitter sometime in the last week, he asked the community to complain about the teacher’s behaviour. The killer is presumed to have seen the video and acted upon it.
