Dad who threatened to behead son’s teacher jailed in France
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The defendant confronted his son’s 58-year-old female teacher in the school carpark after the nine-year-old was moved to another class because of his behaviour.
PHOTO: ST FILE
- A French father was jailed for six months after threatening to behead his son's teacher, referencing a 2020 beheading incident in France.
- The man made threats in the school car park and inside the school, leading to a harsher sentence than initially requested by prosecutors.
- He must complete a citizenship course, avoid contact with the teacher for three years, and the teacher remains traumatised and on sick leave.
AI generated
TOULOUSE, France – A French court has sentenced a father to serve six months in jail after he threatened to “cut off the head” of a woman teacher at his son’s school last week.
The man’s comments came after an 18-year-old radical Islamist of Chechen origin in 2020 beheaded history and geography teacher Samuel Paty, after he showed his class caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
The defendant confronted his son’s teacher in the school carpark in the south-western town of Le Fauga last week, after the nine-year-old was moved to another class because of his behaviour.
The father threatened to decapitate the 58-year-old teacher and also entered the school, where he made threats in front of the headteacher.
A lawyer for the defendant during a hearing on Sept 10 in the city of Toulouse acknowledged the “serious nature” of the offences, but had called on the court to judge his French client as a father, without “taking his Muslim religious beliefs into account”.
The court sentenced the defendant to six months in prison, without parole, to be served immediately.
The sentence was harsher than that sought by the public prosecutor, who had requested six months under electronic monitoring.
Presiding judge Fabrice Rives said the father’s threats were “extremely disturbing”, and could “only refer to a current event that has, unfortunately, remained in the minds of all French people”.
The father will also need to complete a citizenship course within six months of his release, as well as adhere to a three-year ban on contacting the teacher or entering the school premises.
During the hearing, the father apologised, saying he had not “realised the seriousness” of his remarks.
He described himself as “very, very protective of his children” and “not a violent person by nature”.
The teacher’s lawyer, Jocelyn Momasso-Momasso, said his “traumatised” client was currently on sick leave and unsure if she would return to the classroom.
“She told me: ‘I didn’t sign up for this’.” AFP
