The killer of the beheaded teacher claimed responsibility for the attack...

The Russian of Chechen origin who beheaded on Friday near Paris a professor who had organized a debate in his class where cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad were shown, was legally present in France and benefited from refugee status, the anti-terrorism prosecutor explained on Saturday .

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The young man, born March 12, 2002 in Moscow, “had a residence permit issued on March 4 and valid until March 2030 (…). Of Russian nationality and of Chechen origin, he benefited from refugee status ”, declared Jean-François Ricard during a press conference.

“He was unknown to the intelligence services,” he added, recalling that he was, however, known to the police for common law offenses, but never convicted.

He lived in Évreux, in another department, and Mr. Ricard did not specify whether he had at one time attended the Bois d’Aulne college, in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, where the victim worked.

Claim message on Twitter

The magistrate specified that a message of claim posted on Twitter just after the murder, making the link with Muhammad, indeed emanated from this individual. “The investigations were able to confirm that it was indeed an account belonging to the perpetrator,” he said.

The magistrate took stock of the murder on Friday of Samuel Paty, a 47-year-old history and geography professor, beheaded as he returned home after his day’s work.

The magistrate also confirmed that nine people were in police custody, including the father of a student, who had vindicated the teacher on social networks.

He specified that “the half-sister of this man had joined the Islamic State organization in 2014 in Syria and that she is as such the subject of a search warrant by an anti-terrorism investigating judge”.

Since the wave of unprecedented jihadist attacks started in 2015 in France, which killed 259 people with this professor, several stabbing attacks have been carried out, in particular at the Paris police headquarters in October 2019, or in Romans -on-Isère last April.