France teacher’s killer had contact with jihadist in Syria — source

The investigation into the murder in France of a teacher for showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in class has turned to Syria, where the killer had a jihadist contact, a source close to the case says.

Seven people have been charged with being complicit in a terrorist murder after 18-year-old Chechen Abdullakh Anzorov killed Samuel Paty on Friday last week, including two teenagers who helped him identify the teacher.

In their search for accomplices, anti-terror investigators have now established that Anzorov had contact with a Russian-speaking jihadist in Syria whose identity is not yet known, the source tells AFP.

Le Parisien newspaper reports that Anzorov’s suspected contact was located through an IP address traced back to Idlib, a jihadist holdout in northwestern Syria.

In an audio message in Russian immediately after the killing, translated by AFP, Anzorov said that he had “avenged the Prophet” whom the teacher had shown “in an insulting way.”

In the recording, which contains several references to the Koran as well as to the Islamic State terror group, he also said: “Brothers, pray that Allah accepts me as a martyr.”

— with AFP