France’s anti-terrorism court on Friday convicted eight people of involvement in the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty four years ago.
Paty was killed outside his school near Paris on Oct. 16, 2020, days after showing his class cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a debate on free expression. The assailant, an 18-year-old Russian of Chechen origin, was shot to death by police.
Those who have been on trial on terrorism charges at a special court in Paris since the end of November are accused, in some cases, of providing assistance to the perpetrator and, in others, of organizing a hate campaign online before the murder took place.
The shocking death of the 47-year-old Paty left an imprint on France, and several schools are now named after him.
Prosecutors requested sentences ranging from 18 months suspended imprisonment to 16 years in prison against the defendants. They include friends of assailant Abdoullakh Anzorov who allegedly helped purchase weapons for the attack and the father of a schoolgirl whose lies started the fatal spiral of events.
The national anti-terrorism prosecutor had asked the court to downgrade the offenses of four of the eight defendants, prompting ire from Paty’s family.
“It’s more than a disappointment,” Paty’s sister Mickaëlle told broadcaster TF1. “In a moment like this, it feels like one is fighting for nothing.”
The public prosecutor dropped the charge of complicity in favor of a lower charge of association with a terrorist enterprise against the two young men accused of providing the logistical support to the killer. He asked for 14 years in prison for Naïm Boudaoud and 16 years for Azim Epsirkhanov.
The attack occurred against a backdrop of protests in many Muslim countries and calls online for violence targeting France and the satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo. The newspaper had republished its caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad a few weeks before Paty’s death to mark the opening of the trial over deadly 2015 attacks on its newsroom by Islamic extremists.
The cartoon images deeply offended many Muslims, who saw them as sacrilegious. But the fallout from Paty’s killing reinforced the French state’s commitment to freedom of expression and its firm attachment to secularism in public life.
Much attention at the trial focused on Brahim Chnina, the Muslim father of a teenager who was 13 at the time and claimed that she had been excluded from Paty’s class when he showed the caricatures on Oct. 5, 2020.
Chnina, 52, sent a series of messages to his contacts denouncing Paty, saying that “this sick man” needed to be fired, along with the address of the school in the Paris suburb of Conflans Saint-Honorine. In reality, Chnina’s daughter had lied to him and had never attended the lesson in question.
Paty was giving a lesson mandated by the National Education Ministry on freedom of expression. He discussed the caricatures in this context, saying students who did not wish to see them could temporarily leave the classroom.
An online campaign against Paty snowballed, and 11 days after the lesson, Anzorov attacked the teacher with a knife as he walked home, and displayed the teacher’s head on social media. Police later shot Anzorov as he advanced toward them, armed.
Chnina is accused of alleged association with a terrorist enterprise for targeting the 47-year-old teacher through false information. The public prosecutor requested a sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment for him
His daughter was tried last year in a juvenile court and given an 18-month suspended sentence. Four other students at Paty’s school were found guilty of involvement and given suspended sentences; a fifth, who pointed out Paty to Anzorov in exchange for money, was given a 6-month term with an electronic bracelet.
Abdelhakim Sefrioui, who presented himself as a spokesperson for Imams of France although he had been dismissed from that role, is another key figure in the trial. He filmed a video in front of the school with the father of the student. He referred to the teacher as a “thug” multiple times and sought to pressure the school administration via social media. Prosecutors have requested a 12-year sentence for him.
Some of the defendants expressed regrets and claimed their innocence on the eve of the verdict. They did not convince Paty’s family.
“It’s something that really shocks the family,” lawyer Virginie Le Roy said. “You get the feeling that those in the box are absolutely unwilling to admit any responsibility whatsoever. Apologies are pointless, they won’t bring Samuel back, but explanations are precious to us. But, unfortunately I have to make a more than mixed assessment. We haven’t had many explanations of the facts.”
