French court convicts eight people of involvement in 2020 beheading of teacher

France’s anti-terrorism court on Friday convicted eight people of involvement in the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty outside his school near Paris four years ago.

Mr Paty, 47, was killed by an Islamic extremist outside his school on October 16 2020, days after showing his class cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed during a debate on free expression.

The assailant, an 18-year-old Russian of Chechen origin, was shot to death by police.

Those who have been on trial on terrorism charges at a special court in Paris since the end of November were accused, in some cases, of providing assistance to the perpetrator and, in others, of organising a hate campaign online before the murder took place.

The 540-seat courtroom was packed for the verdict, which marked the final chapter of the Paty trial. Heavy surveillance was in place, with more than 50 police officers guarding the proceedings.

Seated in the front row was Samuel Paty’s nine-year-old son, accompanied by family members. As the lead judge delivered sentences one after the other, emotions in the room ran high.

“I am moved, and I am relieved,” said Gaelle Paty, Samuel Paty’s sister, as she addressed a crowd of reporters after the verdict. “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,” she added.

Families of the accused reacted with gasps, cries, shouts, and ironic clapping, prompting the judge to pause multiple times and call for silence.

“They lied about my brother,” shouted one relative. Another woman, sobbing, exclaimed, “They took my baby from me,” before being escorted out by police officers.

The judge met or went above most of the terms requested by prosecutors, citing “the exceptional gravity of the facts”.

Naim 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.

Brahim Chnina, 52, the Muslim father of the schoolgirl whose lies sparked the events leading to Mr Paty’s death, was sentenced to 13 years for association with a terrorist enterprise. Prosecutors had sought 10 years for him.

Abdelhakim Sefrioui, a Muslim preacher, was given 15 years for organising a hate campaign online against Paty.

The shocking death of the teacher left an indelible mark on France, with several schools now named after him.

The trial had begun in late November. The defendants were accused of assisting a perpetrator or organising a hate campaign online in lead-up to the murder.

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 Mohammed a few weeks before Mr Paty’s death to mark the opening of the trial over deadly 2015 attacks on its newsroom by Islamic extremists.

The cartoon images deeply offended many Muslims, who saw them as sacrilegious. But the fallout from Mr Paty’s killing reinforced the French state’s commitment to freedom of expression and its firm attachment to secularism in public life.

Chnina’s daughter, who was 13 at the time, claimed that she had been excluded from Mr Paty’s class when he showed the caricatures on October 5 2020.

Chnina sent a series of messages to his contacts denouncing Mr Paty, saying that “this sick man” needed to 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 had never attended the lesson in question.

Mr 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 Mr 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. Police later fatally shot Anzorov as he advanced toward them, armed.

Chnina’s daughter was tried last year in a juvenile court and given an 18-month suspended sentence. Four other students at Mr Paty’s school were found guilty of involvement and given suspended sentences; a fifth, who pointed out Mr Paty to Anzorov in exchange for money, was given a six-month term with an electronic tag.

Sefrioui, the preacher on trial, had presented himself as a spokesperson for Imams of France although he had been dismissed from that role. He had filmed a video in front of the school with the father of the student. He referred to the teacher as a “thug” multiple times and sought to pressure the school administration via social media.

Some of the defendants expressed regrets and claimed their innocence on the eve of the verdict. They did not convince Mr Paty’s family.

“It’s something that really shocks the family,” lawyer Virginie Le Roy said. “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,” Ms Le Roy said. “We haven’t had many explanations of the facts.”