Cops quiz boy who backed Charlie attackers

Nice, January 29

An eight-year-old boy in France was questioned by the police after he allegedly made comments in school in praise of terrorists, the police said.

The child triggered concern when he refused to take part in a minute’s silence at his school in the southern city of Nice after Islamist gunmen shot dead 12 people at the Paris offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo on January 7, according to Marcel Authier, in charge of the region’s public security.

The boy’s teacher said the child also expressed “solidarity” with the gunmen.

“In the current context, the school Principal decided to report to the police what had happened,” said Authier, who stressed no complaint had been filed against the boy.

“We summoned the child and his father to try and comprehend how an eight-year-old boy could hold such radical ideas,” he added.

"Obviously, the child doesn't understand what he's saying." The boy's lawyer Sefen Guez Guez was not immediately available for comment but on his Twitter feed (@IbnSalah) he wrote that the child admitted to police saying the words: "I am with the terrorists".

Yet when the police asked what the word "terrorism" meant, he replied: "I don't know", according to the tweet. "Father and son are deeply shocked by their treatment which illustrates the collective hysteria that has engulfed France since early January," said the Collective Against Islamophobia in France.

The Charlie Hebdo murders kicked off three days of attacks in Paris that left 17 people dead. — AFP