PARIS:A Paris court sentenced Pakistani national Zaheer Mahmood to 30 years in prison on Thursday for attempting to murder two people outside the former offices of Charlie Hebdo in 2020 with a meat cleaver.
Mahmood, 29, mistakenly believed that the satirical newspaper still operated from the building, which had been targeted by Islamist extremists a decade earlier over controversial caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. However, the newspaper had relocated following the 2015 attack, where two gunmen linked to Al-Qaeda killed 12 people, including several editorial staff members.
Mahmood, originally from rural Pakistan, had entered France illegally in 2019. During the trial, it was revealed that he had been influenced by the radical cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi, who had called for the beheading of blasphemers in retaliation for perceived insults to Islam.
Convicted of attempted murder and terrorism-related charges, Mahmood was also banned from ever returning to France. The attack occurred on September 25, 2020, when Mahmood, armed with a cleaver, attacked two employees of the Premieres Lignes news agency near the former Charlie Hebdo offices.
Alongside Mahmood, five other Pakistani men, some of whom were minors at the time, faced charges for aiding and encouraging the attack. They received sentences ranging from three to 12 years, with adult defendants also banned from entering France. All six men had been listed on Franceβs terrorist watchlist. None of the defendants reacted to the verdict.
Both victims attended the trial but chose not to comment on the outcome.
