French Teen Arrested for Praising Beheading of French Teacher

French police have arrested a 16-year-old in the commune of Lure after he posted messages on social media that praised the actions of the Chechen Islamic terrorist who beheaded teacher Samuel Paty.

The Vesoul prosecutor’s office announced that the high school pupil had been taken into custody on Sunday after he wrote his support for the terror attack on the 20th of October, just days after the killing of Mr Paty.

According to a report from newspaper Le Figaro, the teen wrote: “Any disbeliever wishing to smear Islam deserves to suffer the same fate as Mr Paty. Allahu Akbar.”

Prosecutor of the Republic of Vesoul, Emmanuel Dupic, did not clarify which social media network the message was posted on, but commented: “The high school pupil admitted the facts.”

“We now know that any message posted on the internet can have consequences. So there needs to be a systematic crackdown on these kinds of messages,” he added.

The prosecutor also revealed: “It appears that this is a person who has converted and been radicalised, but who is not from a Muslim background.”

The father of a pupil in Mr Paty’s classed had called for a campaign against the teacher before his murder because he had shown cartoons of the Islamic prophet Mohammed to his class.

It was later revealed that the father, identified as Brahim Chnina, had been in direct contact via WhatsApp with the terrorist who killed Paty, 18-year-old Chechen refugee Abdulakh Anzorov.

Chnina and a well-known Islamist, Abdelhakim Sefrioui, who also participated in the social media campaign against Paty, were arrested following the murder.

Since the terror attack, President Emmanuel Macron’s government has vowed to close Islamist mosques and shut down Islamist groups and has arrested dozens for praising the terrorist attack.

One man, an inmate in a prison in Amiens, was sentenced to eight months after he had praised the murder to fellow inmates, saying: “It’s good for him, he (the terrorist) did the job well, don’t touch my religion, my prophet.”

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com