Eight individuals have gone on trial in Paris accused of encouraging the killer of Samuel Paty, the instructor who was beheaded on the road exterior his college 4 years in the past.
Abdoullakh Anzorov, the younger man of Chechen origin who wielded the knife, is lifeless – shot by police within the minutes after his assault.
So the trial is much less concerning the homicide itself, and extra concerning the circumstances that led to it.
Over seven weeks, the courtroom will hear how a 13-year-old’s schoolgirl lie span uncontrolled due to social media, triggering a world hate marketing campaign, and galvanizing a lone mission of vengeance from a self-styled defender of Islam.
On trial are two males accused of figuring out Mr Paty as a “blasphemer” over the Web, two mates of Anzorov who allegedly gave him logistical assist, and 4 others who supplied help on chatlines.
Mr Paty’s homicide horrified – and petrified – France.
He was a conscientious and much-liked historical past instructor in a secondary college in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, within the affluent western suburbs of Paris.
On 6 October 2020 he gave a lesson on freedom of speech – the identical lesson he had given a number of occasions earlier than – to a category of younger youngsters.
Drawing on the tragically famous episode of Charlie Hebdo magazine – how publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad had led to the 2015 homicide of most of its workers – he briefly confirmed an instance of the cartoons.
Earlier than doing so he really useful that those that feared being offended avert their eyes.
The following day one in all his pupils – the 13-year-old lady – was requested by her father why she was not going to highschool.
She informed him she had been disciplined as a result of she dared to face as much as Mr Paty when he informed Muslims to go away the category so he may present a unadorned image of the prophet.
It was a triple lie.
Mr Paty had not informed Muslims to go away the category. The lady had been disciplined, however not for the rationale she stated. She had not even been within the room on the day Mr Paty gave the lesson on freedom of speech.
However with the Web to ship it on its means, the lie unfold… and unfold.
First the lady’s father – Brahim Chnina – made her repeat the declare on movies, which he posted on Fb, naming the instructor.
Then, an area Islamist – Abdelhakim Sefrioui – created a 10-minute on-line video entitled “Islam and the prophet insulted in a public faculty.”
Inside a few days the college was inundated with threats and messages of hate from around the globe. Paty informed colleagues that he was dwelling via a troublesome time due to the marketing campaign towards him.
In the meantime, the denunciation had reached the eye of an 18-year-old Chechen refugee dwelling in Rouen, 80km (50 miles) to the west.
Anzorov made an preliminary notice on his phone that learn: “A instructor has proven his class an image of the messenger of Allah bare.”
Anzorov then sought the assistance of two mates, who are actually on trial.
One in every of them was allegedly current when he purchased a knife in a Rouen store. The opposite helped him purchase two duplicate pistols on 16 October, the day of the assault, after which drove him to the college.
The 4 final defendants – together with one lady – are individuals with whom Anzorov conversed on Snapchat and Twitter and who allegedly supplied him encouragement.
The defendants admit their connection to the case, however they contest the costs of “terrorist affiliation” or “complicity to commit terrorist homicide”.
Legal professionals for the lady’s father and the Islamist preacher will argue that although they publicly condemned Mr Paty, they by no means referred to as for his homicide.
In the same vein, legal professionals for Anzorov’s mates – precise and on-line – will say they’d no notion he deliberate a killing.
For the prosecution, context is vital. Samuel Paty’s homicide came about at a time of heightened consciousness of the jihadist menace. In October 2020, Charlie Hebdo had simply re-published among the cartoons, to mark the beginning of a trial ensuing from the unique assault.
The web was full of latest Islamist threats towards France, and in late September a Pakistani man had wounded two people with a machete at Charlie Hebdo’s former workplaces.
In that local weather, publicly denouncing a person for blasphemy was tantamount to designating a terrorist goal, prosecutors will argue.
A 12 months in the past the lady on the coronary heart of the case was convicted in a minors’ court of making false accusations and given a suspended prison term.
5 different pupils have been additionally convicted of figuring out Mr Paty for Anzarov in return for cash.
The trial is ready to run till late December.
