A 13-year-old French student who spread a story about her teacher, Samuel Paty, which lead to his beheading has confessed to lying about the entire thing.
A 13-year-old French student admitted to spreading a false story about her history teacher, Samuel Paty, which lead to his gruesome beheading last year, according to a published report.
The student, who has not been named, originally told her father that Paty, 47, had asked Muslim students to leave the classroom before showing a naked cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad, which is considered highly taboo and offensive to Muslims, the Independent reported.
The girl reportedly wanted to please her father, claiming she was suspended after standing up against Paty and defending the Muslim students in her class. In response, following the news, the girl's father filed a legal complaint against Paty, accusing him of promoting Islamophobia, the Independent reported.
Ten days later, on Oct. 16, Paty was decapitated by 18-year-old French student Abdullakh Anzorov. The teenage suspect was killed by police shortly after he attacked the teacher.
It was later learned that the entire story was a hoax and, in reality, the French pupil was suspended a day earlier because of repeated absences, Le Parisien newspaper reported.
She was reportedly not in class the day of the alleged incident, according to reports.
"She lied because she felt trapped in a spiral because her classmates had asked her to be a spokesperson," her lawyer Mbeko Tabula told Agence France-Presse.
“She would not have dared to confess to her father the real reasons for her exclusion shortly before the tragedy, which was in fact linked to her bad behavior,” Le Parisien wrote.
The girl has been charged with slander and her father was arrested for being "complicit in a terrorist killing," the Independent reported.
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