Paris court issues heavy sentences in teacher Samuel Paty’s beheading trial

From France 24

A French court on Friday handed heavy sentences to several men convicted of having played a role in the jihadist beheading of schoolteacher Samuel Paty in 2020 — a murder that horrified France.

Paty, 47, was murdered in October 2020 by an 18-year-old Islamist radical of Chechen origin after showing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in class.

His killer, Abdoullakh Anzorov, died in a shootout with police.

Two friends of Anzorov, Naim Boudaoud, 22, and Azim Epsirkhanov, 23, were on Friday convicted of complicity in the killing and jailed for 16 years.

Two other defendants who took part in the hate campaign against Paty before his murder were convicted of terrorist criminal association.

Brahim Chnina, the 52-year-old Moroccan father of a schoolgirl who falsely claimed that Paty had asked Muslim students to leave his classroom before showing the caricatures, was jailed for 13 years.

His daughter, then aged 13, was not actually in the classroom at the time and earlier in the trial apologised to her former teacher’s family.

Abdelhakim Sefrioui, a 65-year-old Franco-Moroccan Islamist activist, was jailed for 15 years.

The case was heard by a court panel of professional judges in a trial that lasted seven weeks.

Before the court’s ruling came on Friday, the family of Paty had accused the prosecution of leniency. Prosecutors had requested that some of the accused be acquitted, and had disputed the “terrorist intent” of the defendants.

Paty’s sister Mickaelle told BFMTV that the demands by prosecutors were “very weak”, saying she feared that these would be confirmed by the court. “I think my brother died for nothing,” she said, and teachers were still being targeted by violence and threats, she added.

Prosecutors had accused them of having given Anzorov logistical support, including to buy weapons.