Eight people went on trial in France on Monday, accused of contributing to the climate of hatred that led to an 18-year-old Islamist radical of Chechen descent beheading teacher Samuel Paty outside Paris in 2020.
Seven men and a woman will appear in court in the trial, which will last until December, over the murder of 47-year-old Paty, a history and geography teacher.
The trial, which was scheduled to last until December 20, began with the defendants and dozens of witnesses confirming their identities.
Perpetrator Abdoullakh Anzorov, who had sought asylum in France, was killed by police shortly after killing Paty near his school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, west of Paris.
The teacher, who showed his class cartoons of the Islamic prophet Mohammed from the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, is seen by French authorities as a hero of freedom of expression.
This court sketch, created and published on November 4, 2024, shows (L-R) defendants Abdelhakim Sefrioui, Louqmane Ingar, Azim Epsirkhanov, Priscilla Mangel and Yusuf Cinar as they sit 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 teacher Samuel Paty
History and geography teacher Samuel Paty, 47, was beheaded outside a school near Paris after receiving death threats for showing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed during a lesson
General view of the courthouse on the Ile de la Cite on the first day of the trial of eight people accused of involvement in the beheading of French history teacher Samuel Paty by a suspected Islamist in an attack outside his school in Paris in 2020 suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine
Six suspects, three of whom are under judicial supervision, are being tried for participation in a criminal act of terrorism, 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 aged 13, who falsely claimed that Paty had asked Muslim students to leave his classroom before showing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.
She was not in class at the time.
Abdelhakim Sefrioui, a 65-year-old French-Moroccan Islamist activist, is also on trial.
He and Chnina spread the teenager’s lies on social networks with the aim, according to the prosecutor, of “designating a target,” “provoking a feeling of hatred” and “thus preparing various crimes.”
Both men had been in pre-trial detention for four years.
Between October 9 and 13, Chnina spoke by phone with Anzorov nine times after he published videos criticizing Paty, the investigation found.
Sefrioui posted a video criticizing what he perceived as Islamophobia in France and describing Paty as an “educational criminal,” but told investigators he was only seeking “administrative sanctions.”
People look at flowers lying outside the Bois d’Aulne secondary school in tribute to murdered history teacher Samuel Paty, who was beheaded by an attacker for showing students cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in his social studies class, on October 19, 2020 2020 in Conflans. Sainte-Honorine, northwest of Paris. Eight people between the ages of 22 and 65 must appear before the special court of assizes in Paris from November 4, 2024
Family members and colleagues hold a photo of Samuel Paty
French lawyer from the French Association of Victims of Terrorism (AFVT) Antoine Casubolo Ferro answers journalists as he arrives for the trial of eight adults for the murder of teacher Samuel Paty
Two of the attacker’s young friends face even more serious charges of “complicity in terrorist murder,” a crime punishable by up to life in prison.
Naim Boudaoud, 22, and Azim Epsirkhanov, 23, a Russian of Chechen descent, are accused of accompanying Anzorov to a knife shop in the northern city of Rouen the day before the attack.
“Nearly three years of investigations have never established that Naim Boudaoud had any 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 rifles and steel balls on the day of the attack.
Epsirkhanov admitted that he had received 800 euros from Anzorov to find him a real weapon, but he had not succeeded.
Paty had used Charlie Hebdo magazine as part of an ethics course 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 the Prophet Mohammed cartoons.
After the magazine used the images in 2015, Islamist gunmen stormed the offices, killing 12 people.
Four other defendants had online contact with Anzorov.
Yusuf Cinar, a 22-year-old Turkish citizen, shared a jihadist Snapchat account with him, on which footage of Paty’s murder was later published.
Ismail Gamaev, a 22-year-old Russian of Chechen descent with refugee status, and Louqmane Ingar, also 22, exchanged jihadist content on a Snapchat group with Anzorov. The first posted an image of Paty’s head with smiley faces after the murder.
The only woman on trial is 36-year-old Priscilla Mangel, a Muslim convert who spoke to Paty’s killer at X and described the teachers’ class as “an example of the war waged by (the French) Republican institutions against Muslims.”
Thibault de Montbrial and Pauline Ragot, lawyers for Mickaelle Paty, one of the murdered teacher’s sisters, said his killing had highlighted the “depth of Islamist infiltration in France”.
The process should “allow our society to become aware of a deadly danger,” she added.
Six former high school students were sentenced in December 2023 to prison terms ranging from fourteen months’ probation to six months’ imprisonment, following a closed-door trial in the juvenile court. However, those sentenced to prison will not serve any jail time.
Chnina’s daughter was sentenced to 18 months’ probation after being convicted of defamation.
The girl, still a minor, must speak in court on November 26.