Samuel Paty was beheaded near his school outside Paris last month. (File)
Marseilles:
A teenager has been accused in the city of Marseille, in the south of France, of supporting terrorism for comments made during a tribute to murdered professor Samuel Paty, a prosecutor said on Thursday.
The 14-year-old boy, an Afghan national, openly hailed the murder in the classroom, saying he “would have done the same,” La Provence newspaper reported.
The teenager was released after being questioned but will remain under surveillance, Marseille prosecutor Dominique Laurens told AFP.
Marseille recorded seven school-related incidents this week, the head of the region’s education authority, Bernard Beignier, told La Provence.
Three of them were thought to involve “justification of a terrorist act”.
Paty was beheaded near his school near Paris last month by an 18-year-old Chechen after an angry online campaign against him showing cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad as part of a free speech lesson .
On Tuesday, prosecutors in the eastern city of Strasbourg opened an investigation into two 12-year-olds over comments made during a nationwide tribute to Paty, suggesting the teacher got what he deserved.
They added that two similar incidents were also reported involving children aged eight and nine, which led to a social protection investigation.
Home Secretary Gerald Darmanin told lawmakers this week that 66 inquiries into alleged support for terrorism have been opened since Paty’s death, often involving “young people, ages 12 to 16”.
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