Eight people went on trial in France on Monday, accused of contributing to the climate of hatred that led an 18-year-old Islamist radical of Chechen origin to behead professor Samuel Paty outside Paris in 2020.
Seven men and one woman appear in court in the trial, which will last until December, for the murder of Paty, a 47-year-old history and geography teacher.
The trial, which will last until December 20, began with the accused and dozens of witnesses confirming their identity.
Author Abdoullakh Anzorov, who had sought asylum in France, was killed by police shortly after murdering Paty near the latter’s school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, west of Paris.
The teacher, who had shown his class caricatures of the Islamic prophet Muhammad from the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, is considered by the French authorities as a hero of freedom of expression.
This court sketch made and published on November 4, 2024 shows defendants (LR) Abdelhakim Sefrioui, Louqmane Ingar, Azim Epsirkhanov, Priscilla Mangel and Yusuf Cinar sitting during the trial of eight adults accused of contributing to the climate of hatred that led to an 18-year-old Islamist radical in the 2020 beheading of Professor Samuel Paty
History and geography teacher Samuel Paty, 47, was beheaded in front of a school near Paris after receiving death threats for showing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in class.
General view of the Île de la Cité courthouse on the first day of the trial of eight people accused of participating in the beheading of French history teacher Samuel Paty by a suspected Islamist in 2020 in an attack outside his school in the Paris suburb of Conflans -Sainte-Honorine
Six defendants, three of whom are under judicial supervision, are being tried for participation in a criminal terrorist act, punishable by 30 years in prison.
They will not be questioned about their alleged involvement in the murder until November 20.
Among them is Brahim Chnina, a 52-year-old Moroccan.
He is the father of a schoolgirl, then 13, who falsely claimed that Paty had asked Muslim students to leave her classroom before showing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
She was not in the classroom at the time.
Also on trial is Abdelhakim Sefrioui, a 65-year-old French-Moroccan Islamist activist.
He and Chnina spread the teenager’s lies on social networks with the aim, according to the prosecution, of “designating a target”, “provoking a feeling of hatred” and “thus preparing various crimes.”
Both men have been in pretrial detention for the past four years.
Between Oct. 9 and Oct. 13, Chnina spoke by phone with Anzorov nine times after he posted videos criticizing Paty, the investigation showed.
Sefrioui posted a video criticizing what he considered Islamophobia in France and describing Paty as a “teaching bully,” but told investigators he was only seeking “administrative sanctions.”
People look at flowers placed in front of Bois d’Aulne High School in honor of murdered history teacher Samuel Paty, who was beheaded by an attacker for showing students caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in his civics class, on 19 October 2020, in Conflans. Sainte-Honorine, northwest of Paris. Eight people between 22 and 65 years old will appear before the special court in Paris starting November 4, 2024
Family and colleagues hold a photograph of Samuel Paty
The French lawyer of the French Association of Victims of Terrorism (AFVT), Antoine Casubolo Ferro, responds to journalists upon his arrival at the trial of eight adults for the murder of Professor Samuel Paty.
Two young friends of the attacker face even more serious charges of “complicity in terrorist murder”, a crime punishable by life in prison.
Naim Boudaoud, 22, and Azim Epsirkhanov, 23, a Russian of Chechen origin, are accused of having accompanied Anzorov to a cutlery shop in the northern city of Rouen the day before the attack.
“After almost three years of investigation it has not been possible to prove that Naim Boudaoud had knowledge of the attacker’s criminal plans,” his lawyers Adel Fares and Hiba Rizkallah told AFP.
Boudaoud is accused of accompanying Anzorov to buy two replica weapons and steel pellets on the day of the attack.
Epsirkhanov admitted that he had received 800 euros from Anzorov to get him a real gun, but that he had not succeeded.
Paty had used Charlie Hebdo magazine as part of an ethics class to discuss free speech laws in France, where blasphemy is legal and cartoons mocking religious figures have a long history.
His murder took place just weeks after Charlie Hebdo republished cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
After the magazine used the images in 2015, Islamist gunmen stormed its offices and killed 12 people.
Four other defendants interacted with Anzorov online.
Yusuf Cinar, a 22-year-old Turkish citizen, shared a jihadist Snapchat account with him, which then posted images of Paty’s murder.
Ismail Gamaev, a 22-year-old Russian of Chechen origin with refugee status, and Louqmane Ingar, also 22, exchanged jihadist content in a Snapchat group with Anzorov. The first published an image of Paty’s head with smiling faces after the murder.
The only woman prosecuted is Priscilla Mangel, 36, a Muslim convert who spoke with Paty’s murderer in X and described the professor’s class as “an example of the war waged by the republican institutions (of France) against Muslims.” .
Thibault de Montbrial and Pauline Ragot, lawyers for Mickaelle Paty, one of the murdered professor’s sisters, said his murder had highlighted the “depth of Islamist infiltration in France”.
The trial should “allow our society to become aware of a mortal danger,” they added.
Six former high school students were sentenced in December 2023 to sentences ranging from 14 months suspended imprisonment to six months in prison, following a closed-door trial before the juvenile court. Those sentenced to prison, however, will not serve a prison sentence.
Chnina’s daughter was sentenced to 18 months’ probation after being found guilty of defamation.
The girl, still a minor, will appear in court on November 26.