Police quiz boy for terror remark

AN EIGHT-year-old boy was questioned by police after his school reported him for saying “I'm with the terrorists”.

The boy, known at Ahmed, and his father were questioned by police in Nice for two hours after he spoke out saying: “I am not Charlie, I am with the terrorists” and “the journalists deserved to die.”

The education minister, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, has given her backing to the school.

The Collectif contre l'islamophobie en France (CCIF) described the reaction to the affair as “collective hysteria”.

The solicitor for the father and son, Mr Sefen Guez Guez said the reaction was “nonsense” adding that when questioned, the pupil could not even define what terrorism meant.

He added that the boy's father had condemned the words and made accusations that the school had withheld the diabetic boy's insulin and made fun of him saying: “Stop digging in the sandpit, you won't find a machine gun to kill us all”.

The school denies the accusations and says it has no sand pit.

The head of the Alpes-Maritimes public security department Fabienne Lewandowski said: “The child, visibly, did not understand what he had said. We don't know where he got it from.”

Ms Vallaud-Belkacem stepped into the row to insist that the school’s complaint to the police related to the boy’s father - not the child - who she said “had acted in a threatening way to staff on several occasions” and “had a brutal attitude”. "I want to say very firmly that the school team acted correctly and I want to thank them," she said.

She said the child protection service had also been contacted, so an enquiry could be made into the child’s home environment.

The school has also received support for its actions from the head of the Alpes-Maritime council, Eric Ciotti and the Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi.

Some 200 incidents were reported to have taken place in schools during the silence held in respect of the Charlie Hebdo victims on January 8 and 40 were passed on to the police.