Zaheer Mahmood, a 29-year-old Pakistani man, was sentenced to 30 years in prison by a Paris court for his Islamist-motivated knife attack in September 2020. The attack resulted in two injuries as Mahmood mistakenly targeted employees of the Premieres Lignes news agency, believing he was attacking Charlie Hebdo staff due to the magazine's controversial cartoons. Mahmood, radicalized in France after relocating from Pakistan, claimed his actions were driven by a sense of disconnect and a desire to avenge the Prophet Muhammad following Charlie Hebdo's republishing of the cartoons in 2020.
"In his head he had never left Pakistan," Mahmood's defense lawyer Alberic de Gayardon said on Wednesday. "He does not speak French, he lives with a Pakistani community..."
The 2015 attack...sparked a global debate over free speech and religious tolerance, forced the magazine to relocate.
Mahmood was radicalized by an extremist preacher who urged his followers to 'avenge the Prophet.' His actions stemmed from the disconnect he felt in France.
Mahmood believed he was attacking employees of Charlie Hebdo...not realizing that the satirical magazine had relocated after the 2015 attack.
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