Murder of Samuel Paty: 5 and a half years in prison for a man convicted of incitement to terrorism in the United Kingdom

The man, originally from Kashmir and living in Nottingham in central England, was sentenced on Thursday to five and a half years in prison for incitement to terrorism. A man was arrested at his home in March 2021 after tweeting in support of a Pakistani political party supporting “impromptu killings” of people accused of blasphemy, the BBC explains.

Some of the messages incriminated to him were posted online in September 2020, the day after the second attack in Paris on the headquarters of the Charlie Hebdo newspaper, which had already been the victim of a deadly attack in 2015.

A few days later, he rejoiced at the death of history and geography professor Samuel Paty on October 16, 2020 in Conflans-Saint-Honorine (Yvelines). A 47-year-old teacher accused of showing cartoons of Muhammad in class was killed by Abdullah Anzorov, a Russian refugee of Chechen origin. This radicalized 18-year-old was shot and killed by police soon after.

“Get Followers on Twitter”

Ajmal Shahpal was already convicted in March by a Birmingham court of incitement to terrorism for posting several messages on the social network Twitter calling for “committing, preparing or conspiring acts of terrorism.”

During the trial, Ajmal Shahpal defended himself by saying that he was simply retweeting other people’s ideas “to gain followers.”

“You have expressed extremist Muslim ideology, including the killing by decapitation of anyone who is believed to have committed blasphemy against your religion,” Judge Melbourne Inman said as he handed down his verdict.