Eight convicted in France for actions that led to the beheading of a teacher

A French court has sentenced seven men and one woman to prison for their part in a hate campaign that led to the October 2020 murder of schoolteacher Samuel Paty in a Paris suburb.

Sentences are from three to 16 years.

The attack followed social media reports falsely claiming that Patey showed his students obscene pictures of the Prophet Muhammad during a lesson on free speech.

A radicalized Muslim of Chechen origin, Abdullah Anzorov, killed history and geography teacher Samuel Paty at a high school in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Saint-Anarin.

Anzorov was shot dead at the scene by police minutes after killing the 47-year-old man.

He was fired up by claims circulating online that just days earlier, Pati had ordered Muslims to leave a classroom of 13-year-olds before displaying images of the Prophet Muhammad.

In fact, Patty was teaching a lesson on freedom of speech, and before showing one of the controversial photos first published by Charlie Hebdo magazine, he advised students to look away if they feared they would be offended.

In the absence of the murderer, this trial took place over people who provided him with moral or material support.

For seven weeks, the court heard how the 13-year-old schoolgirl’s lies spiraled out of control thanks to social media.

Among those convicted on Friday was Brahim Chnina, the schoolgirl’s father.

Chnina started an online campaign against the teacher and enlisted the help of radical Islamic activist Abdelhakim Sefrioui, who is also now convicted.

Two of the killer’s friends who were with him when he bought the weapons were also found guilty, as were four people he shared radical chat messages with.

The defense argued that none of the eight had any idea of ​​Anzorov’s intentions, and that their words and actions only became criminal once he had carried out his act.

But the judge decided that lack of foreknowledge was not a defence, as what they did had the effect of incitement.