The plaque in Square Samuel-Paty was degraded in Paris, two months after its inauguration

The plaque in Square Samuel-Paty located in Paris, opposite the Sorbonne, has been degraded and the word “Islamist” has been crossed out, in the mention “victim of Islamist terrorism”, two months after its inauguration in tribute to the murdered professor. “The reference to the ‘Islamist’ character of the terrorist act committed against Samuel Paty” has been “bomb blasted”, reported Tuesday, December 21 the mayor (DVD) of the 5th arrondissement Florence Berthout, denouncing a “unacceptable degradation”.

On Monday, Nicolas Gavrilenko, treasurer of the Union of Lay Families (Ufal), reported the plaque “vandalized”, an act that he says signs “the willful blindness of some”. “It is indeed the Islamist terrorism of which Samuel Paty was a victim”, he added. “Wanting to suppress the Islamist character of this heinous act is unbearable”, added Florence Berthout, who announced that she had filed a complaint. City services restored the plaque on Tuesday, she said. “The city of Paris will file a complaint”, also declared the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo.

I strongly condemn the degradation of the plaque in Square Samuel Paty in the 5th arrondissement. It is an inadmissible attack on the memory of this professor. The city of Paris will file a complaint.

– Anne Hidalgo (@Anne_Hidalgo) December 21, 2021

The square was inaugurated on October 16, one year to the day after the attack which cost the life of the history and geography teacher, and in the presence in particular of his family, the mayor PS, Anne Hidalgo, and Ministers of Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer and of Higher Education, Frédérique Vidal. The beheading of Samuel Paty, 47, on October 16, 2020 near his college in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines) by Abdoullakh Anzorov, a radicalized young man who accused him of having shown caricatures of Muhammad to his students, had aroused considerable emotion.