TASS, October 18. Chechnya’s head Ramzan Kadyrov has denounced the terrorist attack in which a teacher was killed in a Paris suburb and offered his condolences to the teacher’s family, Kadyrov wrote on his Telegram channel on Saturday.
"We condemn this act of terror and offer condolences to the family of the victim. Strongly opposing terrorism in any manifestations, I urge not to provoke the believers, nor to hurt their religious feelings," the Chechen leader said.
He assured France that the Chechens had nothing to do with the attack.
"It is not the first time when France attempts to blame Chechens for all her problems. Let me assure you that Chechens are not a part of them," Kadyrov stated.
Kadyrov pointed out that the suspect had lived most of his lifetime in France.
"Looking ahead, so that French investigators will not add color to the ‘Chechen trace’ version, I emphasize that Anzorov visited the Chechen Republic only once in his life at the age of two years," Chechnya’s head said.
About the attack
On October 16, 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.
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.
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.