Trial begins in France over teacher’s beheading | News, sports, jobs

PARIS (AP) — The trial of eight people in Paris on terrorism charges began Monday over the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty, who was killed by an Islamic extremist after showing caricatures of the Islamic prophet to his high school students before a lesson about freedom of expression.

Paty’s shocking death left a mark on France and several schools are now named after him. Paty was murdered outside his school near Paris on October 16, 2020, by an 18-year-old Russian of Chechen descent, who was shot dead by police.

The suspects include friends of attacker Abdoullakh Anzorov who allegedly helped purchase weapons for the attack, as well as people accused of spreading false information online about the teacher and his class.

The proceedings began on Monday in the presence of members of Paty’s family, including his two sisters.

The trial took place under tight security, with many police officers patrolling and conducting checks outside and inside the courtroom.

Five of the suspects, currently in custody, were in a wide glass coffin. Three others, placed under judicial supervision, sat on the defendants’ benches outside the box.

France

secularism at stake

The attack came against the backdrop of protests in many Muslim countries and online calls for violence against France and the satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo. The newspaper had republished its caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed a few weeks before Paty’s death to mark the opening of the trial into the deadly 2015 attacks on the newsroom by Islamic extremists.

The cartoon images deeply offended many Muslims, who considered them sacrilege. But the fallout from Paty’s murder reinforced the French state’s commitment to freedom of expression and its strong commitment to secularism in public life.

“We expect that the justice system will be able to tackle the crime committed,” Francis Szpiner, the lawyer representing Paty’s 9-year-old son, told reporters. “It is an unprecedented event in the history of the republic. It is the first time that a teacher has been murdered for being a teacher.”

Thibault de Montbrial, lawyer for Paty’s sister Mickaëlle Paty, said the trial “will allow everyone in French society to become aware of the direct, extremely clear link that exists between fundamentalist Islam … act.”

The suspects include the father of a student

Much of the focus at the trial will be on Brahim Chnina, the Muslim father of a teenager who was 13 at the time and claimed she was excluded from Paty’s class when he showed the caricatures on October 5, 2020.

Chnina, 52, sent a series of messages to his contacts denouncing Paty, saying “this sick man” should 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 never attended the class in question.

Paty gave a lesson on freedom of expression on behalf of the National Ministry of Education. He discussed the caricatures in this context and said that students who did not want to see them could temporarily leave the classroom.

An online campaign against Paty snowballed and eleven days after the lesson, Anzorov attacked the teacher with a knife while walking home, showing the teacher’s head on social media. Police later shot Anzorov as he approached them armed.

Chnina will be tried for alleged links to a terrorist company that targeted the 47-year-old teacher using false information.

His daughter was tried by the juvenile court last year and received an eighteen-month suspended sentence. Four other students at Paty’s school were found guilty of involvement and given suspended sentences; a fifth, who referred Paty to Anzorov in exchange for money, received a six-month term with an electronic bracelet.

figure who promotes radical Islam

involved

Abdelhakim Sefrioui, 65, is another key figure in the trial that starts Monday for the adult suspects. He presented himself as spokesman for the imams of France, although he had been dismissed from that role. He filmed a video for the school with the student’s father. He called the teacher a ‘thug’ several times and tried to put pressure on the school board via social media.

Sefrioui founded the pro-Hamas Cheikh Yassine Collective in 2004, which was disbanded a few days after Paty’s murder. Sefrioui had long criticized and threatened Muslims who advocate friendship with Jews, including the rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris.

Sefrioui and Chnina face 30 years in prison if convicted.

Chnina denied any incitement to “kill” in his messages and video and claimed he had no intention of inciting hatred and violence, court documents show.

Sefrioui’s lawyer, Ouadie Elhamamouchi, said he will try to prove that his client is “innocent” and that the video Sefrioui filmed in front of the school was not seen by the attacker. “In this case, he is the only one who never had any connection with the terrorist,” Elhamamouchi said.

Others are accused of

complicity

Anzorov, who wanted to go to Syria to fight Islamic extremists there, discovered Paty’s name on jihadist social media channels, according to investigators. Anzorov lived 100 kilometers from Paty’s school and did not know the teacher.

Two friends of Anzorov face life in prison if convicted on charges of accessory to murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise. Naim Boudaoud, 22, and Azim Epsirkhanov, 23, are accused of helping Anzorov buy a knife and a pellet gun. Boudaoud also drove Anzorov to Paty’s school. They turned themselves in at the police station and denied knowledge of the attacker’s intentions.

The other four individuals are charged with criminal terrorist conspiracy for communicating with the killer through pro-jihad Snapchat groups. They all deny knowledge of the intention to kill Samuel Paty.

On October 13, 2023, another teacher was murdered in France by a radical Islamist from Russia, originally from Ingushetia, a region bordering Chechnya.

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