Four years after the murder of Samuel Paty, seven men and one woman are facing charges in Paris. They are said to have been involved in the agitation against the teacher.
Tens of thousands took part in rallies to mourn the murdered Samuel Patys (picture from Paris on October 18, 2020).
Frédéric Scheiber / Imago
It was a barbaric murder triggered by a lie from a 13-year-old student. On October 16, 2020, an Islamist terrorist beheaded history and geography teacher Samuel Paty near his school in the small town of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. A few days earlier, the educator had shown caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in a lesson on freedom of expression. He had allowed his students to leave the room if they didn’t want to see the pictures.
The 13-year-old, who didn’t show up to class that day, later told her father that Paty had deliberately sent Muslim students out of class to show demeaning depictions of Muhammad. The father spread this version on the Internet, which began the hate campaign against Paty. Abdullah Anzorov, an 18-year-old of Chechen origin, read the rumors and decided to execute the teacher. After the crime he was shot by police officers.
Propaganda via Snapchat
At the end of 2023, six minors had to answer before a juvenile court for their involvement in the crime and received prison sentences of between 6 and 24 months. The 13-year-old at the time of the crime was also convicted of “defamatory allegations” and received 18 months probation. Since Monday, in addition to the student’s father, six other men and a woman have been on trial in Paris for aiding and abetting murder.
The father is Brahim Chnina, a 52-year-old Moroccan. The public prosecutor’s office accuses him of publishing videos together with Islamist activist Abdelhakim Sefrioui, who was also charged, in which Paty was made a target and provided intimate information about his identity and his place of work. Chnina is also said to have been in direct contact with the assassin Anzorov. Sefrioui, who ran a Hamas-affiliated organization until 2020, described Paty in one of the videos as a “criminal” who must be held accountable.
Chnina and Sefrioui were taken into custody after the murder and face up to 30 years in prison. Also on trial are Azim Epsirkhanov and Naim Boudaoud, two childhood friends of Anzorow who are said to have helped procure the murder weapon, a 35 cm long knife. Priscilla Mangel, a radical convert who exchanged messages with Anzorow before the attack, is the only woman among the defendants to answer. And finally, three other young men are accused of having ideologically supported the terrorist by sharing a Snapchat group where Paty’s decapitated head was also posted.
State failures?
The trial is scheduled until December 20th. In addition to Paty’s family members, several of the teacher’s colleagues and the French Association of Victims of Terrorist Attacks are also plaintiffs. For the lawyers, it is about clarifying how hatred and incitement could culminate in a terrorist attack, but also about what possible failures the authorities are responsible for: Before the crime, Paty said she felt “threatened by local Islamists” and asked for help several times.
After Paty’s murder, the French state passed a new secularism law that punished threats to teachers with heavy fines and prison sentences. National commemorations were also held in Paty’s honor and schools were christened in his name. Many teachers still felt left alone with their fear. Last October, shortly after the third anniversary of Paty’s murder, another teacher was stabbed to death by a young Islamist in Arras, northern France. He also comes from Chechnya and confessed to IS.
