PARIS (FRANCE) – Samuel Paty, the 47-year old history teacher beheaded by a suspected Islamist last week, will be posthumously awarded France’s highest award, the “Legion d’Honneur”, education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer told on Tuesday.
Paty was murdered by an 18-year-old of Chechen origin. The teenager wanted to avenge Paty’s use of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in a class, which was based on freedom of expression. Muslims consider that any depiction of the Prophet is blasphemous.
A national ceremony in honour of Paty will be held at Paris’ Sorbonne university on Wednesday.