A man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for trying to kill two people with a meat cleaver outside the former Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris in 2020.
Zaheer Mahmood, 29, from Pakistan, attacked and seriously injured two employees of the Premieres Lignes news agency, days after Charlie Hebdo magazine republished cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
He did not know that Charlie Hebdo had moved its offices to a secret location after 12 people were killed there in an armed attack claimed by Al Qaeda following the original publication of the cartoons in 2015.
Mahmoud was convicted of attempted murder and terrorist conspiracy. He will be banned from entering France after the end of his sentence.
Five other Pakistani men, some of whom were under 18 at the time of their crimes, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from three to 12 years on charges of terrorist conspiracy in support of Mahmoud.
The trial was held in the Paris Juvenile Court because of their ages.
The court heard that Mahmoud planned his attack after Charlie Hebdo republished cartoons of the Prophet in September 2020 to mark the opening of the trial of some of those responsible for the 2015 massacre.
The court was told that Mahmood was influenced by radical Pakistani preacher Khadim Hussain Rizvi, who urged him to “avenge the Prophet”.
Armed with a machete, he arrived at the former Hebdo offices in the 11th district of the French capital, and attacked two employees of the Premieres Lignes news agency, which has offices nearby, seriously wounding them.
Witnesses at the time described how they saw their colleagues “covered in blood, and being chased by a man with a machete.”
His victims, a 32-year-old woman named “Helen,” and a 37-year-old man, were present at the sentencing but did not comment on its results.
Neither of them accepted Mahmoud's request for pardon.
“It broke something inside me,” the 37-year-old said while speaking to the court about his long rehabilitation process.
Mahmoud arrived in France illegally in 2017, although he initially claimed to have arrived in 2019. He also lied about his age, claiming to be 18.
Alberic de Gayardon, Mahmoud's defense lawyer, said his client lived and worked with Pakistanis and felt disconnected from France.
Gayardon added: “He does not speak French, lives with the Pakistanis, and works for the Pakistanis.” “In his head he had never left Pakistan.”
