Eight people have gone on trial in Paris on terrorism charges in connection with the beheading of Samuel Paty, a history teacher, who showed pupils cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad after their publication in Charlie Hebdo – an act considered blasphemy by many Muslims (Reuters, Sky News, Times).
In an attack that horrified France in 2020, Paty, 47, was killed outside his school in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine in broad daylight by an 18-year-old assailant of Chechen origin who arrived in France aged six with his Chechen parents and had been granted asylum.
Abdullah Anzarov stabbed Paty repeatedly, before beheaded him and posting a picture of the severed head on social media, with a message from “Abdullah, the servant of Allah” addressed to “Macron, leader of the infidels”.
“I executed one of your hellhounds who dared to belittle Muhammad,” Anzarov boasted.
Having fled the scene, Anzorov was intercepted by police and shot dead after threatening them with an air gun and a knife.
His attack came after the teacher was vilified on social media over his use of the cartoons from the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in a class on freedom of expression.
Weeks before, Charlie Hebdo had republished the cartoons, which it had first published in 2012. In 2015, gunmen stormed the magazine’s Paris office, killing 11 people inside, and a police officer outside, in coordinated terrorist attacks which also resulted in a second police officer being killed and four hostages murdered at a kosher supermarket.
Those on trial include friends of Anzorov, who are accused of taking him to buy a knife and a pellet gun the day before the attack. Naim Boudaoud, 22, and Azim Epsirkhanov, 23, could be jailed for life if convicted on charges of complicity in a terrorist murder.
Others in court are people who allegedly spread false information online about the teacher and his class, including Brahim Chnina, the Muslim father of one of Paty’s pupils, whose account of the use of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad fostered a climate of hate before his murder.
At the time of Paty’s murder, prosecutors said there was a “direct causal link” between online attacks on him – including a video posted to social media by Chnina – and his death.
Chnina’s then 13-year-old daughter had told him that Paty ordered Muslim pupils, including her, to leave the class while he showed other students the Muhammad caricatures.
In fact, Paty displayed the cartoons during a discussion on freedom of expression, and told pupils they could turn away if they thought they would be offended by the images. The girl didn’t know this, however, because she was not at school that day, having been suspended for bad behaviour.
Prosecutors accuse Chnina of collaborating with Abdelhakim Sefrioui, who founded a hardline Islamist organisation, to incite hatred towards the middle-school teacher.
They also allege that Chnina sent a series of messages to his contacts denouncing Mr Paty, along with the address of the school in the Paris suburb of Conflans Saint-Honorine.
“They put a target on the teacher’s back,” Thibault de Montbrial, a lawyer for Samuel Paty’s sister Mickaelle Paty, told reporters. “Their public allegations… the videos they made attacking this teacher… all this spiral led directly to the atrocious decapitation of Samuel Paty.”
“It will be interesting to see, how after having set up a whole chain of events from the letter A to the letter Y they will say that they are not responsible for the letter Z.”
Both Chnina and Sefrioui are charged with association with a terrorist organisation, and if convicted face up to 30 years imprisonment.
Chnina’s lawyer declined to comment ahead of the start of the trial. Sefrioui’s lawyer, Ouadie Elhamamouchi, has claimed there is no proof of contact between Sefrioui and the Chechen killer, who was shot dead by police.
The four other defendants are charged with terrorist conspiracy for communicating with the killer on Islamist Snapchat groups. They deny knowing that he planned to kill Paty.
The trial before a panel of judges is due to end on December 20th.
