A 31-year-old French-born convert to Islam has been sentenced to six months in prison for glorifying terrorism after she made comments supporting the murder of teacher Samuel Paty by a radical Islamic extremist.
The 31-year-old, who is the former spouse of a man on the French terror watchlist known as the S-file, made comments on several videos on social media between September and November of 2020 praising the Chechen refugee who murdered Samuel Paty in September of 2020.
“Bravo, you did what many did not dare to do. Allahu Akbar,” she wrote in a comment on a video that was a tribute to the Islamist terrorist, Abdulzakh Anzorov, broadcaster Francebleu reports.
During her trial, the 31-year-old mother of three explained her comments by saying “It was because of the pressure that the media put on Islam,” adding: “since then I have changed my way of thinking. I sincerely regret these publications.”
She added that she had been angered by French president Emmanuel Macron defending the right to publish cartoons of the Islamic prophet, Mohammed. Samuel Paty was beheaded in the street after showing the Mohammed cartoons to his class during a lesson on freedom of expression.
“It was not to support terrorism,” the 31-year-old tried to suggest, claiming to believe that “the assassination of Samuel Paty is inhuman and I disgust myself, I am disgusted to have been able to post this.”
Unemployed for the last nine years, the 31-year-old converted was invited by her terror watchlist partner to go to Syria. He also told her he wanted to fight the French state.
Her current husband, a Tunisian migrant, lives in France illegally and has been in the country since January without a visa.
Her case comes just months after another woman, a 33-year-old, was arrested in the city of Nîmes in June after allegedly having been in contact with Abdoullakh Anzorov just days prior to the murder of Samuel Paty.