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Paris court sentences Pakistani man to 30 years in prison over attack on Charlie Hebdo
Web Desk
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24 Jan 2025
A Pakistani man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison in Paris for attempting to murder two people with a meat cleaver in 2020 over blasphemy.
Convict Zaheer Mahmood was 29 years old when he carried out the attack on a building he mistakenly believed housed the offices of a satirical newspaper that had published blasphemous caricatures of Islam a decade earlier.
However, Charlie Hebdo had moved from the building after two Al-Qaeda gunmen stormed its office in 2015 and killed a dozen people in editorial staff.
The incident shocked France and sparked a fierce debate on freedom of expression and religion.
Hailing from rural Pakistan, Mehmood arrived in France illegally in the summer of 2019.
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During the trial, the court learned that Mahmood had been influenced by Khadim Hussain Rizvi, the late founder of the banned Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), who had called for the beheading of individuals accused of blasphemy.
The Paris court convicted Mahmood of attempted murder and terrorist conspiracy. Following his sentence, he will be permanently banned from entering France.
In September 2020, Charlie Hebdo republished the anti-Islam cartoons on the opening of the trial for the 2015 massacre. This act prompted Rizvi to urge his followers to seek revenge for the caricatures.
In this regard, Mehmood arrived in front of Charlie Hebdo’s former office with a butcher’s cleaver and wounded two employees of Premieres Lignes news agency.
It is pertinent to mention here that Charlie Hebdo's decision to republish the caricatures sparked nationwide protest in Pakistan, as blasphemy is punishable by death in the country.
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In addition to Mahmood, five other Pakistanis, some of whom were minors at the time, were also on trial for facilitating the terrorist conspiracy, as described by the French law.
A French special court for minors sentenced them to prison terms ranging from three to 12 years for aiding Mahmood in the attack.
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