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 Mohammed.
The defendant confronted his son’s teacher in the school car park in the southwestern 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 Thursday 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 apologized, saying he had not “realized 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 “traumatized” 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.’”
