Man imprisoned by the Cleaver attack of meat outside the old office

A man has been imprisoned for 30 years for trying to kill two people with a meat knife outside the old Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo in 2020.

Zaheer Mahmood, 29, from Pakistan, attacked and severely injured two employees of the Predian Lignes News Agency, days after Charlie Hebdo had returned to publish cartoons representing the prophet Muhammad.

I did not know that Charlie Hebdo had transferred the offices to a secret location after 12 people were killed there in a weapons attack claimed by Al-Qaeda after the original publication of cartoons in 2015.

Mahmood was condemned for an attempt to murder and terrorist conspiracy. He will be expelled from France when his sentence is served.

Five other Pakistani men, some of whom were under 18 at the time of their crimes, were imprisoned for three and 12 years for positions of terrorist conspiracy for supporting Mahmood.

The trial was held in the Court of Minors in Paris due to its ages.

The court heard that Mahmood had planned his attack after Charlie Hebdo again published his cartoons of the prophet in September 2020 to mark the opening of the trial of some of those responsible for the massacre of 2015.

It was told to the court that Mahmood was influenced by the radical preacher Pakistani Khadim Hussain Rizvi, who had urged him to “avenge the prophet.”

Armed with a meat blade, he reached the old Hebdo offices in the 11th district of the French capital, and attacked and seriously injured two employees of the Predician Lignes News Agency, which has nearby offices.

Witnesses at that time described how they saw their schools “bloody, being persecuted by a man with a machete.”

His victims, a woman named “Helene”, 32, and a 37 -year -old man were present in the sentence but did not comment on his result.

Neither of them has accepted Mahmood’s supplications.

“He broke something inside me,” said the 37 -year -old man, telling the court of his long rehabilitation process.

Mahmood arrived in France illegally in 2017, although he initially claimed to arrive in 2019. He also lied to his age, claiming to be 18 years old.

Mahmood’s defense lawyer, Alberic de Gayardon, said his client lived and worked with Pakistani and felt disconnected from France.

“It does not speak French, lives with Pakistani, works for Pakistani,” Gayardon added. “In his head he had never left Pakistan.”