French police question 10-year-olds who voiced support of teacher’s beheading
- They ‘justified the teacher’s assassination by arguing that it was forbidden to offend the prophet’
- Judicial authorities ordered educative training for the children and police also searched their homes
Police in France questioned four 10-year-olds who voiced support for the beheading of a schoolteacher and who said they would kill their own teacher if he lampooned Islam’s prophet, the government reported as the prime minister warned on Saturday that Islamic extremists are recruiting in France with “ignorance and hate.”
The children and their parents were detained and questioned for several hours on Thursday by police in the Alpine town of Albertville, Interior Ministry spokeswoman Camille Chaize said.
On Monday, when French schools held a nationwide minute of silence to honour the murdered teacher, Samuel Paty, the children voiced support for his killing last month near Paris, Chaize said in a video statement on Friday night.
They “justified the teacher’s assassination by arguing that it was forbidden to offend the prophet and adding that they would kill their teacher if he caricatured the prophet,” she said.
Paty was killed on October 16 outside his Paris-region school by an 18-year-old refugee of Chechen origin after he showed his class caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed for a debate on free expression.
The children in Albertville were released after questioning. Judicial authorities ordered educative training for them, the Chaize said. Police also searched their homes.
