Fatwa was launched against beheaded teacher: French min
PARIS: The father of a schoolgirl and a known Islamist terrorist had urged the killing of a French teacher who was beheaded for showing pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, France’s interior minister said Monday.
’’The father of a schoolgirl and a known Islamist militant had urged the killing of Samuel Patty, French history teacher,’’ Darmanin said in an interview.
“They apparently launched a fatwa against the teacher,” minister Gerald Darmanin told a radio channel.
He added that over 80 investigations had been launched for online hate speech following the killing of the teacher, who had been the target of vitriolic attacks on the internet.
Meanwhile, the French police on Monday raided the homes of “dozens” of Islamist militants three days after the decapitation.
Earlier, thousands of people gathered across France on Sunday to support teachers and defend freedom of expression.
His assailant was shot dead by French police as they tried to arrest him, police and prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said they were treating the incident as “a murder linked to a terrorist organisation” and related to a “criminal association with terrorists”. An anti-terror probe has been launched into the incident.
The assault happened on the outskirts of Paris at around 5 pm (1500 GMT) near a school in Conflans Saint-Honorine, a western suburb of the French capital.
The attack comes only days after a follower of the Islamic State militant group who attacked a police officer outside Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris with a hammer was sentenced to 28 years in jail.