At the specially composed assize court,
Questioned for more than ten hours by the specially composed assize court, Abdelhakim Sefrioui did not concede the slightest wrong, rejecting outright any responsibility in the assassination of Samuel Paty. “I am not in the process, in the pattern of this crime”, “I am not in the chain [de responsabilité] “, “I am a stranger to this crime”… the religious activist – white beard and hair, round glasses with thin frames – kept repeating this Tuesday for having participated in the hate campaign which led to to the beheading of the teacher, October 16, 2020.
Speaking with ease, even smugness, often speaking about himself in the third person, the 65-year-old man did not have a word for the victim or his family. Except, perhaps, to evoke his own fate. “What is serious is that now my name has been linked to this crime of unspeakable atrocity,” he insists. He who is quick to put himself forward, seeks above all to minimize his involvement in the spiral which was fatal to the teacher. However, it was he who contacted Brahim Chnina, the father of the teenager at the origin of the lie, notes the president. He who drove two hours the next morning to get to the Bois d'Aulne college. He who was described by the principal and the guard as the most vehement.
“Jean Moulin was not a terrorist”
Throughout his audition, Abdelhakim Sefrioui strives to uncorrelate his role from any religious aspect. He never uses the word blasphemy. He describes himself as a slayer of injustice but denies any form of religious radicalization. His action, he swears, has nothing to do with the caricatures presented in class by Samuel Paty. “I have the right to be shocked but the law is there,” he insists, asserting that he is very attached to “freedom of expression”. According to him, if he is so keen to help Brahim Chnina, it is above all to fight against the discrimination to which his daughter, Z, says he is a victim. “Asking Muslim children to distinguish themselves is only that my motivation,” he swears.
Of course, he knows nothing about the teenager's lie, but numerous text messages unearthed during the investigation refer to the distribution of the caricatures. His words also contrast with the life and religious activism of this man, head of the Cheikh Yassine collective, named after the founder of Hamas. How does he view this man, the president asks him to try to understand him. “Jean Moulin was not a terrorist. Terrorist for some, resistant for others,” retorts the accused.
“The killer sealed his plan on the 9th”
What about his video published three days after his arrival at college – October 11 – and five days before the assassination of Samuel Paty? In particular, he calls the professor a “thug” and speaks of a “despicable” act. “The killer sealed his project on the 9th, my video was released on the 12th [le 11 dans la soirée, en réalité] “, he insists. And to clarify: “I cannot feel guilty”. Abdelhakim Sefrioui repeats again and again that he could not imagine that his words would be misused. A close connoisseur of the case, he recalls that the terrorist, Abdullakh Anzorov, had been looking for “prey” for several months already, even accusing the authorities of having taken the situation with a certain lightness. “The least we could have done was to provide protection for this professor,” he dares.
This is the whole difficulty of this case: can he be held responsible for an attack when nothing directly links him to the terrorist? Investigations have shown that Abdullah Anzorov did not see his video, contenting himself with those of Brahim Chnina, and the two men were never in contact. For the prosecution, his activism alongside Brahim Chnina made it possible to target Samuel Paty. He relies on the father of the family. “I was not in contact with the killer,” he specifies. The court and the attorneys general insist: by presenting himself as a religious leader, does he not have the impression of encouraging the father of the family. “No, he was already in full flight, in resentment,” he says, as if in denial.
The verdict is expected on December 20.
