The Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) that led the recent overthrow of the Assad regime in Syria has been tied to the terrorist beheading of French teacher Samuel Paty.
Potentially undermining claims from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham leader Mohammed al-Joulani that his organisation has moderated from its jihadist past, having been formed originally as an offshoot of al-Qaeda, the organisation has been tied to the brutal beheading of Samuel Paty in a Paris suburb in 2020 with a meat cleaver after he was accused of blasphemy for showing students in a class on freedom of expression a caricature of the Islamic prophet Mohammed.
According to a 2020 article from Le Parisien published shortly after the beheading, the Russian-born Chechen attacker Abdoullakh Anzorov sent a message containing a picture of Paty’s severed head to an account on Instagram alongside an audio message: “I beheaded the teacher, now I’m going to wage jihad in France.”
The account replied with a message: “Allah Akbar! May the peace, mercy and blessings of Allah be upon you.” Shortly after the exchange, Anzorov was shot and killed by police.
Le Figaro reports that Anzorov’s contact was later revealed to have been Tajikistan-national Faruq Shami, who posed as an independent