A Paris anti-terrorism court has found eight individuals guilty of involvement in the 2020 beheading of teacher Samuel Paty near his school, marking the conclusion of a case that shocked France.
The trial, which began in late November, centered on accusations that the defendants either aided the perpetrator or fueled an online hate campaign leading up to the murder.
The panel of seven judges delivered most of the sentences requested by prosecutors, citing the “exceptional gravity of the facts.”
- Naïm Boudaoud (22) and Azim Epsirkhanov (23), friends of the attacker, were convicted of complicity in murder and sentenced to 16 years each. Neither will be eligible for parole until two-thirds of their sentence is served.
- Brahim Chnina (52), a Muslim father whose daughter’s false accusations triggered the hate campaign, received a 13-year sentence for association with a terrorist organization.
- Abdelhakim Sefrioui, a Muslim preacher who led the online campaign against Paty and repeatedly called him a “thug,” was sentenced to 15 years. He also used social media to pressure the school administration.
Some of the defendants expressed regret and maintained their innocence before the sentencing.
The murder, which occurred in October 2020, horrified the nation. Samuel Paty, a history teacher, had reportedly shown students cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad as part of a lesson on free speech, according to a 13-year-old student whose fabricated story became the catalyst for the attack.
The attacker, Abdullakh Anzorov, an 18-year-old Chechen refugee originally from Moscow, waited outside the school and beheaded Paty with a knife after class. He then boasted about his actions on X (formerly Twitter). Anzorov, who was not a student at the school, was shot and killed by police during his arrest.
