France holds tributes for beheaded teacher
PARIS — France’s prime minister joined demonstrators Sunday who rallied together across the country intributetoahistoryteacher who was beheaded near Paris after discussing caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad with his class.
The demonstrations came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump sent Franceamessageofsolidarity in thewake of the attack.
Samuel Paty was beheaded Friday in the northwesternsuburbsofParisbya 18-year-old Moscow-born Chechen refugee who was shot dead by police.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex stood with citizens, associations and unions demonstrating Sunday on the Place de la Republique in Paris in support of freedom of speech and in memory of the 47year-old slain teacher. 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 the Prophet Muhammad.
A moment of silence was observed across the square, broken by applause and the French national anthem.
Demonstrators also gathered in other cities including Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Strasbourg andToulouse.
Frenchauthorities, meanwhile, say they have detained an11th person following the killing.
Anti-terrorism prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard said an investigation for murder with a suspected terroristmotivewas opened.
At least four of those detained are family members of the attacker, who had been granted 10-year residency in France as a refugee inMarch, was armed with a knife and an airsoft gun, which fires plastic pellets.
His half-sister joined the Islamic State group in Syria in 2014, Ricard said. He didn’t give her name, and it wasn’t clear where she is now.