France: Pakistani Man Sentenced for Knife Attack Outside Former Site of Charlie Hebdo

There are still reverberations from the deadly jihadist attack against the French satirical weekly, Charlie Hebdo in 2015. Yesterday, a 29-year-old Pakistani man and 5 associates were sentenced to various terms in prison stemming from the Pakistani’s knife attack on two people in front of the former premises of Charlie Hebdo. The Pakistani, identified as Zaheer Mahmood, mistakenly assumed that the newspaper office was still located at the site of the 2015 attack. In reality, the newspaper had relocated to another location after the 2015 attack.

The below article in Ouest France is translated by Fousesquawk. hat tip to Francois deSouche. 

Knife  attack targeting “Charlie Hebdo“: The principal defendant sentenced to 30 years in prison

The Special  Criminal Court for Minors in Paris has sentenced Zaheer Mahmood, 29, to 30 years in prison for having attacked two persons with a cleaver in September 2020 in front of the former site of the weekly satirical (newspaper). He was targeting Charlie Hebdo but did not know that the newspaper had relocated after the 2015 attack.

Ouest France, January 23, 2025 at 19:19

Caption: Zaheer Mahmood in front of the Special Criminal Court of Paris on January 6, 2025.

Zaheer Mahmood, 29, was sentenced Thursday, 23 January 2025 to 30 years in prison for having carried out a knife attack in front of the former site of Charlie Hebdo in September 2020. The man had been prosecuted for attempted murder and participation in a terrorist criminal association after having attacked two persons with a cleaver. The prosecutors in the special criminal court had requested 30 years in prison for him.

Between 3-12 years for his co-defendants

Five of his associates, some of whom were minors at the time of the crime, were tried with him for “criminal terrorist association”. The prosecutors had stressed that Zaheer Mahmood would never have been able to act without their support. They were sentenced to terms between 3-12 years imprisonment. With the exception of two of them, all of them will be banned from the (French) territory upon completion of their detention.

Originally from a rural region in Pakistan, Zaheer Mahmood arrived illegally in France in the summer of 2018. A follower of radical Islam, he explained that he had wanted to “avenge the Prophet,” after the republication of caricatures of Mohammad by Charlie Hebdo on September 2, 2020 on the occasion of the opening of the trial of the jihadist attacks in January 2015. The young man did not know that the satirical newspaper had relocated after the attack that decimated its editorial staff.