Marseille: teachers receive a photo of Samuel Paty and death threats, an open investigation

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NATIONAL EDUCATION – The various letters go back several days. A couple of teachers, both professors in a college in the north of Marseilles, received several death threat letters in their mailbox. According to our colleagues from BFMTV and Point, the couple first received, on October 8, a photo of Samuel paty, the teacher assassinated last year in front of a school in Yvelines.

A few days later, they received a new mail: a typed letter on which was written: “These are your last days, do not look back in the street. You will die ”. Finally, on the night of October 15 to 16, the day of Samuel Paty’s death, the couple received a new letter with the inscriptions: “Last days … next week you will die”.

A “safety device” put in place by the police

The Marseille prosecutor’s office announced to Provence and to BFMTV having entrusted an investigation to the urban security of the southern division for “threat of death in writing on a person holding public authority”.

″ At this stage, there is nothing to link these facts to a course given by one of the teachers, ”said the same source to our colleagues, who specifies that a“ safety device has been put in place by the police services ”.

The couple “were immediately taken care of by the relations and human resources department of the Aix-Marseille academy. The latter has supported teachers in the search for solutions allowing them to protect them as well as possible, ”said the academy.

She adds that the rector Bernard Beignier and the Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, condemn “with the greatest firmness these threats and assure the teachers of their full support”.

“No threat or aggression, physical or verbal, against them can be tolerated,” insists the academy.

Tributes Saturday

A year to the day after his assassination, tributes to Professor Samuel Paty took place on Saturday, October 16 in the Val-d’Oise where he lived, in the Yvelines where he taught, and in Paris where his family was received at the Élysée.

A plaque was inaugurated at the Ministry of Education bearing the inscription “homage to Samuel Paty, September 18, 1973 – October 16, 2020, professor of history, geography and moral and civic education. Assassinated by an Islamist terrorist for having taught and defended the values ​​of the Republic including freedom of expression ”.

A square in the name of the teacher was also inaugurated the same day in Paris, opposite the University of La Sorbonne, again in the presence of his family.