Eight people have been convicted for being involved in the death of teacher Samuel Paty, who was beheaded outside of his school near Paris four years ago.
Mr Paty was killed outside his school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, west of Paris, on October 16, 2020, by Abdoullakh Anzorov, an 18-year-old Chechen migrant to France.
He was beheaded days after showing his class cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a debate on free expression – an incident that shocked the entire country.
Anzorov – an Islamic extremist -was shot dead by police minutes after the attack.
The death of the 47-year-old teacher left an indelible mark on France, with several schools now named after him.
A trial begun in late November, against several defendants who were accused of assisting a perpetrator or organising a hate campaign online in lead-up to the murder.
France‘s anti-terrorism court on Friday convicted eight people of involvement in the beheading of teacher’s murder, to a packed 540-seat courtroom.
In the front row was Paty’s nine-year-old son, accompanied by family members, as 50 police officers guarded proceedings.
History and geography teacher Samuel Paty, 47, was decapitated outside a school near Paris
A Republican Guard holds a portrait of Samuel Paty in the courtyard of the Sorbonne university on October 21, 2020
The seven-judge panel met or went above most of the terms requested by prosecutors, citing ‘the exceptional gravity of the facts.’
Naïm Boudaoud, 22, and Azim Epsirkhanov, 23, friends of the attacker, were convicted of complicity in murder and sentenced to 16 years in prison each.
Boudaoud was accused of driving the attacker to the school, while Epsirkhanov helped him procure weapons.
Both must serve around two thirds of their sentence – around 10 years – before applying for parole.
Brahim Chnina, 52, the Muslim father of the schoolgirl whose lies sparked the events leading to Paty’s death, was sentenced to 13 years for association with a terrorist enterprise.
Prosecutors had sought for him to be handed 10-year prison sentence.
Abdelhakim Sefrioui, a Muslim preacher, was given 15 years for organising a hate campaign online against Paty.
At the time of the attack, there were 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 in relation to the attacks on its newsroom by Islamic extremists in 2015.
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.
Paty was violently stabbed to death and then decapitated by 18-year-old Chechen refugee Abdoullakh Anzorov on October 16, 2020. Anzorov was then shot by police
Brahim Chnina, 52, the Muslim father of the schoolgirl whose lies sparked the events leading to Paty’s death, was sentenced to 13 years for association with a terrorist enterprise
French President Emmanuel Macron leaves after paying his respects by the coffin of slain teacher Samuel Paty in the courtyard of the Sorbonne university on October 21, 2020
Chnina’s daughter, who was 13 at the time, claimed that she had been excluded from Paty’s class when he showed the caricatures on October 5, 2020.
Chnina 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 Parisiene school.
In reality, Chnina’s daughter had lied to him and had never attended the lesson in question.
Paty was teaching a class 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 in a post on social media.
Chnina’s 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 child, who pointed out Paty to Anzorov in exchange for money, was given a 6-month term with an electronic bracelet.
Sefrioui, the preacher on trial, presented himself as a spokesperson for Imams of France although he had been dismissed from that role.
People stand in front of flowers and candles next to a placard reading ‘I am a teacher, I am Samuel’ at the entrance of a middle school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, 30kms northwest of Paris, on October 17, 2020, after Paty was decapitated
Hundreds of people gather on Republique square during a demonstration Sunday Oct. 18, 2020 in Paris in support of freedom of speech and to pay tribute to a French history teacher who was beheaded near Paris
He had filmed a video in front of the school with the father of the student, referring to Paty as a ‘thug’ multiple times.
He released the video in a bid to pressure the school administration via social media.
Some of the defendants expressed regrets and claimed their innocence on the eve of the verdict, however Paty’s family were not convinced.
‘It’s something that really shocks the family,’ lawyer Virginie Le Roy said ahead of the verdicts.
‘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,’ Le Roy said. ‘We haven’t had many explanations of the facts.’
Following the guilty verdict, Paty’s sister Gaëlle tearfully said: ‘I am moved, and I am relieved. Hearing the word ‘guilty’ — that’s what I needed.’
‘I spent this week listening to a lot of rewriting of what happened, and it was hard to hear, but now the judge has stated what really happened, and it feels good.’