Eight sentenced in France for actions that led to teacher beheading

A French court has sentenced seven men and a woman to prison for their anti-social activities that led to the October 2020 killing of teacher Samuel Paty in the Paris suburbs.

Penalties range from three to 16 years.

The attack followed posts on social media alleging that Paty showed his students obscene pictures of the Prophet Muhammad during a free lesson.

Abdoullakh Anzorov A Chechen-born Muslim killed Samuel Paty, a history and geography teacher, at a high school in the Parisian district of Conflans-Saint-Honorine.

Anzorov was shot at the scene by police minutes after killing the 47-year-old.

He was angered by reports circulating on the Internet that a few days earlier Paty had ordered Muslims to leave a class of 13-year-olds, before showing pictures of the prophet Muhammad.

Instead, Paty was conducting a lesson on freedom of speech, and before showing one of the controversial pictures first published by the magazine Charlie Hebdo, he advised schoolchildren to close their eyes if they were afraid of being offended.

In the absence of the killer, the blame was on those who provided him with support, morals or wealth.

Over the course of seven weeks, the court heard how the 13-year-old girl’s lies continued to spiral out of control thanks to social media.

Among those sentenced on Friday was Brahim Chnina, the girl’s father.

Chnina launched an online campaign against the teacher and asked for help from Islamist activist Abdelhakim Sefrioui, who has also been found guilty.

Two friends of the killer who were with him when he bought weapons were also convicted, as were four people who shared messages with him on social media.

The defense argued that none of the eight had any idea of ​​Anzorov’s intentions, and that their words and actions were only conspiratorial when they did what they did.

But the judge ruled that lack of foresight was not self-defense, because his actions had a positive effect.