Malian receives French citizenship for saving lives during Paris terror attack

monjola sotubo

January 21, 2015 12:42 PM

Lassana Bathily hid customers of kosher supermarket, Hyper Cacher supermarket in a freezer after the store was attacked by terrorist Amedy Coulibaly in solidarity with Charlie Hebdo attackers, Cherif and Said Kouachi.

A Malian resident of France has been granted citizenship of the country after he saved lives during a terror attack in Paris on January 9.

24-year-old Lassana Bathily hid customers of kosher supermarket, Hyper Cacher supermarket in a freezer after the store was attacked by terrorist, Amedy Coulibaly in solidarity with Charlie Hebdo attackers, Cherif and Said Kouachi.

Bathily then escaped through another exit and informed security officials about the invasion.

Coulibaly shot four hostages dead before being killed by the police. The Kouachi’s were also killed in a separate raid.

French authorities decided to honour the Malian, who is a Muslim, by making him a citizen after an online petition was started to that effect and received about 300,000 signatures.

Bathily has been living in France since 2006 and applied for naturalization last year.

The 24-year-old was praised for his 'courage and heroism' by Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve in the presence of Prime Minister Manuel Valls during a ceremony which held on Tuesday, January 20.

Cazeneuve stated that Bathily’s ‘act of humanity has become a symbol of an Islam of peace and tolerance.’

The Kouachi’s stormed the office of satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo on January 7 and killed 12 people in revenge for the publication’s notorious anti-Islamic cartoons.

monjola sotubo