© Associated Press
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A French student has admitted to lying and spreading false allegations about teacher Samuel Patti, who was beheaded in October after showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
The girl’s complaints triggered an online campaign against Patty, but according to the latest confessions, she was not on time at this time, write BBC and The Guardian.
The murder shocked France, several years after the assassination of Charlie Hebdo over cartoons against the prophet. The republishing of the same images, which led to the killing of 12 people in the newsroom in 2015, strained relations between France and the Muslim world.
Prior to the beheading, the 13-year-old girl, whose name is being kept secret, told her father that Patti had asked Muslims to leave the room while showing cartoons during a class on free speech and blasphemy.
Fake history
“She lied because she felt trapped – her classmates asked her to be a speaker,” her lawyer Mbeko Tabula told AFP. In fact, it was removed after it systematically failed to appear in class.
She made up the story that Patti asked Muslim students to leave to show a “picture of the naked prophet.” According to Le Parisien, she later confessed to investigators – she was not there, but wanted to please her father. She did not dare to admit to him the real reason for her removal. However, the investigation led to the testimony of her classmates, who ruled out that she was in class at the time.
The girl’s father is the man who started the online campaign and filed a complaint against Patty. Prosecutors see a direct link between the murder of 18-year-old Abdullah Anzorov and the campaign. As a result, the girl was accused of defamation, and her father and an Islamist preacher – of complicity.
Shortly after hearing his daughter’s story, the 48-year-old Moroccan-born father shared a video on Facebook asking for Patty to be fired. He later explained to investigators that he had acted “idiotically and stupidly”. “I never thought terrorists would see my messages. I didn’t want to hurt anyone with that message.” It’s hard for me to imagine how we got here, but we lost a history teacher and everyone blames me. “
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