A man put in prison for attack with a meat knife in front of a former office

A man was sentenced to 30 years in prison for trying to kill two people with a meat knife in front of the former Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo in 2020.

29-year-old Zahir Mahmoud from Pakistan attacked and wounded two staff at the Premieres Lignes news agency, days after Charlie Hebdo prejudices cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

He did not know that Charlie Hebdo had moved offices to a secret place after 12 people were killed there in a weapon attack by al -Qaeda after the initial publication of the caricatures in 2015.

Mahmoud was convicted of attempted murder and terrorist plot. He will be banned from entering France when he serves his sentence.

Five other Pakistanis, some of whom were under 18 during their crimes, were sentenced between three and 12 years in prison on charges of a terrorist plot to support Mahmoud.

The process was held in court for minors in Paris because of their age.

The court heard that Mahmoud was planning his attack after Charlie Hebdo published his prophet’s cartoons in September 2020 to mark the opening of the trial against some of those responsible for slaughter in 2015.

In court, it was said that Mahmoud was influenced by the radical Pakistani preacher, Hadim Hussein Rizi, who called for him to “avenge the prophet.”

Armed with a meat knife, he arrived at the former Hebdo offices in the 11th district of the French capital and attacked and wounded two staff at the Premieres Lignes news agency, which has offices nearby.

Witnesses then talk about how they saw their colleagues “bloody, haunted by a man with a machete.”

His victims, a woman named “Helen”, a 32 and 37-year-old man, attended the sentence, but did not comment on the result of her.

None of them accepted Mahmoud’s requests for forgiveness.

“It broke something in me,” the 37-year-old man said as he told the court about his long rehabilitation process.

Mahmoud arrived illegally in France in 2017, although he initially claimed that he had arrived in 2019. He also lied to his age, claiming he was 18.

Mahmoud’s defender, Albery de Gayardon, said his client lives and works with Pakistanis and feels isolated from France.

“He doesn’t speak French, lives with Pakistanis, works for Pakistanis,” added Mr Gayardon. “In his head, he never left Pakistan.”