At the specially composed assize court,
Anger? No, rather a desire to defend his daughter in the face of an exclusion that he considered unfair, or at least unjustified. This is what pushed Brahim Chnina to broadcast on various WhatsApp groups at the beginning of October 2020, a call to “get this college professor fired”, speaking of Samuel Paty. His message will have a fatal trajectory and will lead to “the irreparable”, “the unforgivable”, according to him: the assassination of the teacher on October 16 of the same year near the Conflans-Sainte-Honorine college (Yvelines ).
Brahim Chnina is one of seven defendants tried in Paris as part of the trial over the attack. He is accused of having distributed messages and videos that put a target on the teacher's back. He is being prosecuted for terrorist conspiracy and faces 30 years of criminal imprisonment. In a slightly hoarse voice with a slight accent but in almost impeccable French, the accused, dressed in a cream sweater, answers all the questions of the president of the specially composed assize court and “swears to only say the truth, the whole truth.”
“I infinitely regret what I did, I regret a lot, I am not a terrorist,” says the accused with graying hair and beard in the preamble. A lot of remorse is expressed, accompanied by a certain taking of responsibility but also some memory lapses.
Responsibility half assumed
Several times throughout the day, he emphasizes his “regrets” and apologizes to the victim’s loved ones. “I have shared their pain since the start of the attack, I feel very guilty and sincerely from the bottom of my heart,” he addressed to the colleagues of the murdered professor. It's difficult to know if he is sincere or not, but his tone is serene and respectful. Despite a few poles stretched out by the president, Brahim Chnina does not want to “unload” himself on the one who accompanied him in his efforts: the imam of Abdelhakim Sefrioui. Brahim Chnina also refuses to blame his daughter. “Zohra* made a mistake by lying, and I did the same,” he asks calmly. On the other hand, he believes that the principal of the college has “a share of responsibility” in the death of the professor, causing a hubbub of indignation in the room.
Let's rewind. Her daughter was excluded from her school for two days. She then made up an excuse to her parents – and in particular her father – to avoid punishment, explaining that her history geography teacher asked the Muslim students to raise their hands and leave the class while he was going to show caricatures of the prophet made by Charlie Hebdo. “Unbelievable but true, we have to fire this college professor,” reacted the father on October 8 in eight different WhatsApp groups bringing together more than 200 people each and on Facebook. Brahim Chnina, firstly and “in order”, protests against the exclusion from college, the discrimination of which his daughter would have been a victim and finally against the caricatures which only arrive at the end of the chain. A practicing Muslim, “I am not radicalist”, he maintains, describing a “religious practice like all Muslims in France, an open practice”.
By keeping his calm, in a calm voice, the now 52-year-old man assures that he did not get angry at any time. However, in his messages, he uses insults to qualify the professor. “I was stupid to have used the words thug and sick,” he concedes, without convincing the civil parties. “At the start, I wasn’t very angry, I always looked for appeasement,” he insists. I was stupid and stupid to have used the networks. I reacted badly. My message was like a call for witnesses to see if other families have experienced the same thing,” he defends. However, the message does not call for witnessing, but for action, “if you love your prophet”. Although he admits to being partly “responsible” for his actions, he denies having made a “digital fatwa” assuring that he had “no intention of harming Mr. Paty”.
From gear to blindness
Still wanting to “defend” his daughter and trying to “negotiate” her exclusion, he decides to go to the establishment in the hope of meeting the principal. Imam Abdelhakim Sefrioui, for whom he has respect due to his age and his position, offers to accompany him. On October 8, they were received by the head of the establishment an hour after their arrival and became angry in the office. On this point, Brahim Chnina regrets that the principal did not tell him that his daughter had not attended class at the heart of his reprimands. “If she had told me, Mr. Paty would still be alive,” he dares.
Complaint, video, media coverage, demonstration… The two men decide to take multiple steps to lead their fight. Brahim Chnina is overwhelmed by hundreds of messages and calls. At least 1,000 according to his lawyer. Among these callers, Abdoullakh Anzorov, the terrorist who will take action a few days later, contacts him, offers him financial assistance, they discuss together participating in the demonstration that Brahim Chnina intends to organize. But he assures him, it won't go any further. Always rebellious, he seems to have remained deaf to the various alerts – including that of his own daughter – concerning the reality of the facts and the danger he posed to the professor by broadcasting his name and the name of the college. He kicks in, often invoking a memory lapse, when certain contradictions are noted by the court.
The accused nevertheless assures him: if he had known that his daughter was absent from class on the day of the caricatures, “all this would not have happened”. “That’s the mistake I made, I believed my daughter too quickly,” he pleads. He also explains that he was “in a bubble”, a spiral, a “multitude of procedures”, points out the general counsel, which “blinded” him, as he explains, he no longer “believed that [sa] girl “.
Our file on the assassination of Samuel Paty
From the beginning, Zohra C. lied. She was not in class the day Samuel Paty showed the caricature of Charlie Hebdo. The teacher did not ask the Muslim students to raise their hands and leave the room. He did not decide to exclude his student. But when the truth comes out, it is already too late. On October 16, Abdoullakh Anzorov did the unthinkable and beheaded the geo-history professor in the middle of the street. “When I learned about Mr. Paty, it was a collapse, until now I can't believe it, it hurt me so much. I learned that Mr. Paty was beheaded and that my video was playing on repeat.” “I felt a lot of fear, sadness, pain, a lot of emotion and a lot of hurt for Mr. Paty, rest his soul, I found it hard to believe it. I had only seen beheadings in Syria, I never thought it could happen to my daughter's teacher.”
* The first name has been changed
