PARIS, October 17. /TASS/. The man who killed a history teacher in a Paris suburb on Friday was not related to Russia, as he had been living in France for 12 years since his family was hosted by that country, Sergei Parinov, the spokesman for Russia’s embassy in Paris, told TASS on Saturday.
Parinov pointed out that the suspect Abdullah Anzorov was of Chechen descent.
"That man came to France with his family in 2009, at the age of six," the diplomat continued. "The family sought political asylum. They lived with long-term residence permits. That Anzorov was granted his own residence permit after coming of age this year."
The diplomat recalled that Russia’s citizenship is annulled after the status of a political asylum seeker is obtained.
"He had no contacts at all with the embassy," the diplomat said, adding that thus, "this crime has nothing to do with Russia, since that man lived in France for 12 years and his family was received by the French side."
"In this case, little does it matter where a person was born, but where, when and why he began practicing terrorist ideology which Russia always and absolutely condemns in all its manifestations," the diplomat emphasized.
Prosecutor gives details
Earlier, France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard said that the suspect was "a Chechen born in Moscow on March 12, 2002, who was a refugee. He was not known to the law enforcement agencies." According to the prosecutor, the suspect was granted a 10-year residence permit on March 4.
Ricard confirmed that nine people had been detained over the attack. According to the prosecutor, "the half-sister of one of the detainees joined the Islamic State terror group in 2014." (the Islamic State is outlawed in Russia - TASS).
"Currently, she is on the wanted list for terror crimes," he explained.
The prosecutor said that "this man asked pupils to point out the history teacher."
"A victim’s photo taken before the crime was found on his mobile phone," Ricard said.
Timeline of events
On Friday afternoon a teacher was attacked outside the school where he taught in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a suburb of Paris. His throat was slit with a kitchen knife. The assailant tried to threaten police officers who arrived at the scene but was shot dead.
France’s anti-terror prosecutor is investigating the attack, which President Emmanuel Macron dubbed as an act of terror. The investigators’ main lead is the teacher’s professional activities. Nine people, including the killer’s relatives, have already been detained in connection with the attack.
The investigators said that on October 5 the teacher showed cartoons of Prophet Muhammad in his class on freedom of expression and since then he was the target of threats from his students’ parents. He was said to have filed a complaint to police over the treats.
Politician’s opinion
Jean-Luc Melenchon, head of the Unbowed France party and a member of parliament, said that "it is not normal when the teacher was receiving threats for a week and that did not bring any response from the authorities."
"It is inadmissible," he believes. "The intelligence agencies and police should have timely apprehended the perpetrator."
"It is not normal that the terrorist could be plotting such an act of violence and that could have stayed out of the police’s attention," he concluded.