Eight individuals are on trial in Paris accused of inciting the murder of Samuel Paty, the teacher who was brutally beheaded outside his school four years ago for showing a cartoon of Prophet Mohammed.
While the killer, Abdoullakh Anzorov, was shot dead by police shortly after the attack, the trial is focused on the events that led to the tragedy, including how a 13-year-old girl’s fabricated story escalated into an international hate campaign online.
The defendants include two men accused of labelling Mr Paty as a “blasphemer” on the internet, two of Anzorov’s friends who allegedly provided logistical assistance, and four others accused of encouraging him through online chat platforms.
Although the defendants acknowledge their connections to the case, they deny the charges of “terrorist association” and “complicity in terrorist murder.”
Mr Paty’s murder shocked France and fuelled widespread fear. A well-regarded history teacher at a secondary school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a prosperous suburb of Paris, Mr Paty had conducted a lesson on free speech on 6 October 2020, which included a discussion of the controversial Charlie Hebdo cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Before displaying the cartoons, he advised any students who might be offended to avert their gaze.
The next day, a 13-year-old pupil, when questioned by her father about why she wasn’t attending school, falsely claimed she had been punished for challenging Mr Paty, who, she alleged, had told Muslim students to leave the classroom so he could show a “naked image of the prophet.”
This was a lie as Mr Paty had never asked Muslim students to leave, the pupil had not been disciplined for this reason, and, in fact, she was not even present during the lesson in question.
This false account quickly spread online, fuelled by the girl’s father, Brahim Chnina, who had her repeat the accusation in videos he posted on Facebook. A local Islamist, Abdelhakim Sefrioui, amplified the lie by producing a ten-minute video titled “Islam and the Prophet insulted in a public college.”
Within days, the school was bombarded with threats and hate messages from around the world, leading to what Mr Paty described to colleagues as a difficult and distressing time.
The denunciation soon reached the ears of Anzorov, an 18-year-old Chechen refugee living in Rouen, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) from Paris. Recording a note on his phone that read, “A teacher has shown his class a picture of the Messenger of Allah naked,” he began preparations for a personal act of revenge.
Seeking support, he enlisted two friends who are now on trial: one allegedly accompanied him to purchase a knife, and the other assisted in buying replica pistols and drove him to Mr Paty’s school on the day of the attack.
The four remaining defendants, including one woman, are individuals who had allegedly interacted with Anzorov online, providing him with encouragement. Although they admit to involvement with the killer, they deny any intention to support terrorism or murder.
Defence lawyers for the girl’s father and the Islamist preacher argue that, despite publicly condemning Mr Paty, they never explicitly called for his death. Similarly, Anzorov’s friends maintain they had no idea he intended to commit a killing.
Prosecutors stress the importance of context, arguing that the murder of Samuel Paty took place during a period of heightened awareness of jihadist threats in France. In October 2020, Charlie Hebdo had republished some of its controversial cartoons, reigniting debates that had led to the original 2015 attacks on its staff.
The internet was awash with new Islamist threats against France, and just prior to Mr Paty’s murder, a Pakistani man attacked two people with a machete at Charlie Hebdo’s former offices.
In this tense atmosphere, prosecutors argue that publicly branding someone as a blasphemer effectively marked them as a target for extremist violence. The false and defamatory accusations against Mr Paty, they contend, made him a marked man.
Last year, the girl at the centre of the case was convicted in a minors’ court for making false accusations and received a suspended prison sentence. Five other students were also convicted for identifying Mr Paty to Anzorov in exchange for money.
The trial, which began recently, is set to run for seven weeks and will delve into the dynamics of how online misinformation and hate can culminate in real-world violence.
Scheduled to conclude in late December, the court aims to assess the far-reaching consequences of social media-driven incitement in a case that has reverberated across France.
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