France’s Central Directorate of the Judicial Police has detained five people suspected of complicity in the brutal killing of a French teacher at the hands of an extremist in October, according to Le Parisien newspaper.
History teacher Samuel Paty was murdered by beheading on Oct. 16 on the outskirts of Paris by an 18-year-old Chechen radical.
The attack allegedly occurred because the teacher had shown religious caricatures depicting Islamic prophet Muhammad to his students as part of freedom of speech discussion, prompting outrage among their Muslim parents.
The attacker was shot dead by police the same day he committed the murder.
According to the newspaper’s sources, five young men of Chechen origin, whose ages range from 18 to 21, were detained by police on Monday in the departments of Seine-Maritime, located in the country’s north, and Haute-Loire in central France.
They are suspected of having been in contact with Paty’s attacker through messengers and social media.
Earlier, media reported that a total of 14 people had been charged in the inquiry into the teacher’s murder, which has been underway for nearly two months.
