The trial began in Paris on Monday against six former students of the school where Samuel Paty taught, a professor killed on October 16, 2020 in a terrorist attack after being accused of showing his students a caricature of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. Five of the students, who were 14 and 15 years old in 2020, are accused of conspiracy to prepare aggravated acts of violence, for having revealed information about the professor’s identity and location to Paty’s killer for a fee. The sixth, a 13-year-old student at the time, is accused of slander for falsely claiming that the teacher had made the Muslim students leave the classroom to show the rest of the pupils some images of a naked Muhammad during a lesson on freedom of expression . In reality, the student confessed that she had not been present in the classroom that day.
According to the prosecution, the six minors, who risk up to two and a half years in prison, played a “fundamental” role in Paty’s murder. The student’s false statements in fact triggered an online campaign of protests against the professor, accused of discriminating against Muslim students and disrespecting Muhammad, fueled mainly by the student’s father and a radical Muslim preacher. The numerous posts on social networks accusing Paty attracted the attention of the perpetrator of the attack, the Russian refugee of Chechen origin Abdoullakh Anzorov, who said shortly after the murder that he was happy to have “avenged the Prophet”. The attacker was killed by the police who intervened at the scene of the crime.
The trial, which is being held behind closed doors in a juvenile court, is the first to take place in the matter. A trial is expected to begin at the end of 2024 against eight adults, including the father of the student accused of slander, accused of fomenting a hate campaign against the professor.
– Read also: The lie behind the murder of Samuel Paty