The French authorities have identified several Islamic radicals, including members of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist group (banned in Russia), who were in contact with student Abdoullakh Anzorov, responsible for killing history teacher Samuel Paty last year, Le Parisien newspaper reported, citing the police and sources
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th March, 2021) The French authorities have identified several Islamic radicals, including members of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist group (banned in Russia), who were in contact with student Abdoullakh Anzorov, responsible for killing history teacher Samuel Paty last year, Le Parisien newspaper reported, citing the police and sources.
In January, seven suspects were reported to have been arrested in a sprawling probe into Paty's murder. They are said to have been members of discussion groups that the teacher's killer was part of.
According to the news outlet, after the attack Anzorov, an 18-year-old Chechen radical, wrote to an Instagram user, saying he had beheaded the teacher and was going to conduct jihad in France. The killer also sent a photo as proof but was unable to read a reply as he was pursued and then gunned down by the police.
The French specials services have managed to identify the user as Tajikistan-born Faruq Shami, said to be very active on social media posing as an independent journalist covering militants in Syria. However, in reality, Shami was a member of the terrorist group, working on promoting the ideas of jihad in the media and promoting the group.
The FBI also provided data to the French police, showing that all IP addresses used by Shami are located in Syria's Idlib. Shami was talking with young men like Anzorov, giving them religious advice through anonymous Instagram accounts.
Anzorov had other contacts with Islamists in Syria, including a person with the handle 12.7X108, the caliber of the Soviet heavy machine gun, who was a Russian-speaking member of the same terrorist group. The young man also contacted a person who styled himself as the high justice as the Sharia court of the Imarat Kavkaz terrorist group (banned in Russia). With him, Anzorov discussed a possible pilgrimage to the middle East but later abandoned the idea.
History teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded by Anzorov on October 16 in the outskirts of Paris. The attack allegedly occurred because the teacher had shown religious caricatures depicting Islamic prophet Muhammad to his students as part of freedom of speech discussion, provoking outrage among their Muslim parents. Following the incident, France stepped up its efforts against Islamism.
