At the specially composed assize court,
Long black hair, a ponytail, tanned complexion, a white top, a black vest, a pleated skirt. Zohra* C. fiddles with her hands, placed on the desk in front of her. “You obviously know one of the accused, who is your father, and you were implicated in this case and convicted by the children's court,” recalls the president of the specially constituted assize court, Franck Zientara. This shy-looking teenager, now aged 17, received an 18-month probationary suspension in December 2023 for slanderous denunciation. A year later, the one who triggered the fatal controversy at Samuel Paty, by lying about the progress of one of his courses, was “heard for simple information”, the magistrate reminded him. “Which does not prevent you from speaking frankly. »
“I’m going to start on Monday,” breathes this high school student in Terminale. At the time, she was still in middle school, in 4th grade. That day, she was excluded from class by her History and Geography teacher. “I wasn’t insolent but I asked questions without raising my hand,” she says. The next day, the day when Samuel Paty presents caricatures of Mohammed to his students as part of a moral and civic education course, she is absent. “I was on my period. » But “two girls” in his class told him they were “shocked”.
On Wednesday, she was taking the bus with some friends when she received a “furious” call from her mother. “She asked me why I had been excluded. Under the influence of panic and stress, I told him that I had been to a class and that I did not agree, that I left, that the teacher excluded me and that we saw caricatures…”
“Everyone finally believed me”
Why did she lie? “I was afraid of disappointing my parents by saying that I had really been excluded because I did a lot of stupid things,” she says, adding that she sometimes hid her notebook from them. I know that, for them, education is very important. » His father “says that you must always respect teachers, even if you are wrong”. But the affair takes a terrible turn when Brahim Chnina introduces him to Abdelhakim Sefrioui, a Franco-Moroccan Islamist activist. According to her, the latter first told her he was a “journalist”. The schoolgirl agrees to be filmed on the condition that we do not see her face. “I repeated my lie by saying that I had experienced that,” she says.
In the evening, her father sees that she is “not well”. “He told me: ‘if you want, we can file a complaint’. I said OK. » The police officer who received her allegedly suggested that she clarify that the caricatures shown by Samuel Paty were “pornographic, so that it would go faster”. Against the advice of her father who, she explains, simply wanted to denounce “discrimination”.
It is then in front of the school principal, Audrey F., that she repeats her – invented – version of the facts. “I told myself that someone was going to stop me in my lie. No one told me I wasn't in class. I told myself that my lie stood, that everyone finally believed me. I could no longer manage my lie. » “Even in front of the psychologist”, met at the request of her father, the young girl cannot tell the truth. “It was only me who knew I was lying, I wasn't feeling well. »
The day of Samuel Paty's assassination, around ten days after the famous course, Zohra was absent from college, having been excluded for two days. She learned, while watching BFMTV, “that a teacher had died in Conflans”. She “collapsed” in her mother’s arms. His parents decide to send him to his sister-in-law. “During the journey, someone sent me the photo of Mr. Paty beheaded,” she says. I threw my phone in the car. »
“Hard to hear” excuses
“Is there anything else you would like to clarify?” » asks the president. After a long silence, the young girl continues. “I couldn't do it well a year ago, but I would like to apologize to the family [de la victime] “, she says. “I know my apology is hard to hear but I really wanted to apologize sincerely, I'm sorry for destroying your life. »
Tears flow down her cheeks. She also asks forgiveness from her family, “from the people who are in the box” of the accused, from her father whose “naivety” and “kindness” she took advantage of. “If he made a video, it’s because of my lie. » “What was he shocked by? » asks Franck Zientara. “It’s that Muslims were told to go out while for him he should be teaching everyone. » “Are you sure that's it?” Isn't it about showing the prophet crouching naked? » asks the magistrate. “What shocked my father was the discrimination, not the caricature. »
“Without my lie, all this would never have happened”
Zohra C. will eventually reveal the truth in police custody, after 30 hours of hearings. “No,” she assures, the teenager never thought that her lie could have such dramatic consequences. She just wanted to “cover [s] es exclusions”. “I can only blame myself. Without my lie, all this would never have happened. » She went “much too far”, she admits. But she was in a “lockdown” and didn’t know how to “get out” of this situation. “Today, if a person should be condemned, it is not the people in the box but me. »
Our file on the Paty affair
Me Virginie Le Roy, the Paty family's lawyer, recalls that she was prohibited from contacting her father when she was under judicial supervision. Which she nevertheless did. “I missed him,” Zohra breathes. “These contacts were not only emotional,” believes the criminal lawyer. It was also about preparing your criminal defense. » Me Szpiner, the lawyer for the ex-wife of Samuel Paty and their son, wonders if the young girl, by overwhelming herself, is not trying to “ensure that the position of [son] father is the easiest to defend” during this trial.
* The first name has been changed
