A unique trial came to a close on Thursday, January 23, before the special criminal court in Paris. It involved a new kind of terrorist attack, whose author aimed at avenging Islam's prophet under the penal code in force in another country, Pakistan. On September 25, 2020, Zaheer Mahmoud, a 23-year-old migrant from the Punjab province, attempted to hack to death two young men smoking a cigarette outside the former offices of Charlie Hebdo on rue Nicolas-Appert in Paris in response to the republication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad by the satirical newspaper.

"I thought it was the law of the Quran and of Pakistan," explained the accused on the stand to justify his act, insisting that he had only become aware of the absurdity and horror of his crime in prison. At the end of the proceedings, this son of peasants, who had come to France in the hope of finding a better life, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for attempted terrorist murder coupled with a permanent ban from France.

His five co-defendants, uneducated young migrants from Punjabi villages who shared his indignation and desire for revenge, were sentenced to between three and 12 years in prison for terrorist conspiracy. Except for two of them, who were minors at the time of the events, all will be banned from entering France at the end of their detention.

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