Paris French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to the murdered teacher Samuel Paty during an ordeal on Sorbonne university campus, who was beheaded by a young Chechen man during an Islamist attack on a suburb of Paris last Friday. According to the president, the history and geography teacher lost his life because he embodied the republic. He called cowards those who told his name to the “barbarians.” Paty was an unforgettable teacher, Macron said.
“Samuel Paty was assassinated because Islamists want our future and they know they will never have it with silent heroes like him,” said the president in the Sorbonne courtyard, where a coffin with the remains of a murdered teacher from the U2 song One was brought to the ceremony. .
According to investigators, Paty, 47, was killed because he had recently talked to students about freedom of speech and showed them cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Investigators concluded that the 18-year-old Chechen did not know the teacher personally. He therefore paid two students to show it to him. The couple, along with five other people, are among the accused, while the perpetrator himself was shot by the police shortly after the crime.
One of the other defendants, the father of a high school student where Paty taught, posted videos on the Internet in which he was outraged at the teacher’s behavior and gave his name and the school’s address. According to the prosecutor, the teacher died “in the context of the murder calls” that followed the reprinting of Muhammad’s cartoons in the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in early September.
The Chechen killer bribed two students to show his teachers. Police charged 14 and 15-year-olds with terrorism |
Macron assured on Wednesday that France will not give up cartoons and drawings. “We will continue, Professor. We will defend the freedom you have taught so well, and we will promote secularism, we will not give up cartoons and drawings, even if others give in, “said the highest representative of the French state.
The president also condemned the cowards who “gave the teacher’s name to the barbarians.” “I will not talk about terrorists and all the cowards who committed and facilitated this assassination,” said the head of the Elysee Palace during the ordeal, which involved the relatives of the murdered man and a large part of the French political representation. “I will not speak of those who passed his name on to the barbarians. He doesn’t deserve it, “Macron said.
The French president spoke of Paty as “one of the unforgettable professors.” According to him, Paty embodied the ideal of a teacher who “shows the greatness of thought, teaches respect, shows what civilization is.”
“Samuel Paty became the face of the republic on Friday,” Macron said in an emotional tear. After his speech, he stood in front of the coffin to the sounds of the French anthem.
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