The police in Tunisia opened an investigation after remarks by an independent deputy who justified the beheading of the French teacher from Conflans by believing that it was necessary to "assume" the fallout of any "attack on the prophet".
Teacher Samuel Paty, 47, who showed his teenage students caricatures of the Prophet of Islam Muhammad during a free speech class on Friday, was killed as he left his college near Paris, an attack that aroused emotion and fear in France.
The next day, Rached Khiari, independent Tunisian deputy, elected under the banner of the Islamist movement Karama, member of the government coalition, estimated on his Facebook page that “any attack on the Prophet Muhammad is the greatest of crimes.
All those who commit it, whether it is a State or a group of individuals, must assume its consequences and repercussions ”.
Ready to relinquish parliamentary immunity
These remarks were criticized by some Internet users but welcomed by others.
They also led to the cancellation of the broadcast of a program in which Rached Khiari was speaking on a private Tunisian channel.
The MP said he was ready to give up his parliamentary immunity.
No judicial investigation has been opened for the moment, but the judicial pole "has charged a brigade specializing in terrorism cases to investigate the content of the post" on Facebook, said Monday Mohsen Dali, deputy attorney general at Tunis court of first instance.
This brigade will then have to transmit the results of the preliminary investigation to the prosecution which “will take the appropriate measures”, he said.
The Prime Minister's message of tolerance
On Saturday, Tunisian Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi expressed to his French counterpart Jean Castex the “condolences” of the Tunisian people, during a telephone conversation.
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Hichem Mechichi stressed that his country rejected "all forms of extremism and terrorism, which have nothing to do with Islam", and underlined the need to "respect freedom of expression and belief".
