the 10 days preceding the Conflans attack

Samuel Paty’s fate changed when a parent complained, via social media, for showing Muhammad caricatures in class.

Everything changed very quickly for Samuel Paty, this history and geography teacher from a college in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, savagely beheaded this Friday at the end of the afternoon. His assailant, an 18-year-old Chechen, came from Évreux, in the Eure, to the Yvelines (about 90 kilometers away) to assassinate his victim, guilty according to him of having offended the Prophet Muhammad.

This is the course taught by Samuel Paty October 5 which would be at the root of the drama. On this day, the teacher wants to talk to his 4th year students about freedom of expression. He intends to show them caricatures of Muhammad to illustrate this concept but, upstream, warns his Muslim students that these drawings could shock them and, therefore, invites them to leave the room if they wish.

Complaint filed

Three days later, October 8, the indignant father of a student of the establishment decides to file a complaint against Samuel Paty. According to our information, this is clearly the father currently in police custody. He had posted a video on social networks in which he called the teacher a “thug” for showing caricatures of Muhammad “naked” during a class in his daughter’s class.

A report was also made to Rodrigo Arenas, co-president of the FCPE, the first association of parents of pupils. He describes an “extremely pissed off father”. The teacher would have, according to Rodrigo Arenas, shown a drawing of the crouching prophet with a star drawn on his buttocks and the inscription “a star is born”.

Defamation

Monday 12 october, the teacher is heard and the police reveal to him the content of the father’s complaint. The teacher discovers, amazed, that this father is talking about a student who is not part of his class. He tells about the course he did, which focused on the cartoons of Muhammad. He says he suggested that students who did not want to attend this class get out.

In view of the charges against him, Samuel Paty in turn decides to file a complaint, not for violence or threats, but for defamation and slanderous denunciation. Four days later, he was found beheaded and his assailant was shot dead by the police in the Val-d’Oise, not far from the site of this violent murder, the symbolic weight of which is undeniable.