A Paris court on Thursday sentenced a Pakistani man to 30 years in prison for trying to murder two people outside Charlie Hebdo’s former office in 2020 with a meat cleaver.
When he carried out the attack, 29-year-old Zaheer Mahmood mistakenly believed the satirical newspaper was still based in the building, which was targeted by Islamists a decade ago for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
The paper had actually moved in the wake of the attack, which killed 12 people, including eight of the paper’s editorial staff. The killings in 2015 shocked France and triggered a fierce debate about freedom of expression and religion.
Originally from rural Pakistan, Mahmood arrived illegally in France in the summer of 2019. The court had previously heard how Mahmood was influenced by radical Pakistani preacher Khadim Hussain Rizvi, who had called for the beheading of blasphemers to “avenge the prophet”.
Mahmood was convicted of attempted murder and terrorist conspiracy and banned from ever setting foot on French soil again.
