They were found guilty of terrorist conspiracy, for having notably launched a hate campaign on social networks against Samuel Paty.
Justice has been served. At the end of seven weeks of hearings, the eight accused in the trial of the assassination of Samuel Paty were determined on their fate. These seven men and one woman had been on trial since the beginning of November for their involvement, to varying degrees, in the assassination of Professor Samuel Paty on October 16, 2020. As a reminder, Abdoullakh Anzorov, the assassin, had been shot dead by the police.
At the heart of the accusation, two men: Brahim Chnina and Abdelhakim Sefrioui. They are accused of having launched an online hate campaign against Samuel Paty. This Friday, December 20, the Paris Special Assize Court sentenced them to 13 and 15 years of criminal imprisonment respectively. They were found guilty of terrorist conspiracy.
Chnina, the schoolgirl's father
Brahim Chnina is a 52-year-old Moroccan. He is the father of the schoolgirl who falsely claimed that Samuel Paty had asked Muslim students to leave his class before showing caricatures of Mohammed. A lie which notably provoked an outpouring of hatred and threats towards the professor, and which ultimately resulted in tragedy.
“I am not a terrorist,” he proclaimed on the stand when he was the author of the first messages and the first videos stigmatizing Samuel Paty. “What I did is irreparable and unforgivable,” he admitted, however.
On October 7 and 8, 2020, he published messages and videos denouncing Samuel Paty as a “rogue” teacher. He did not hesitate to provide the name of the professor and the address of his college on social networks, provoking violent reactions.
The investigation also revealed that between October 9 and 13 he had nine telephone contacts with the assassin of Samuel Paty, even if he declared not to have met him. During the trial, he also implicated the principal of the Conflans-Sainte-Honorine college where Samuel Paty worked. “If she had told me right away that my daughter had lied and wasn't in class, I might have backed out […]. If she had done it, Mr. Paty would still be alive,” he said.
He also implicated his sidekick, Abdelhakim Sefrioui, with whom he had gone to the principal's office, threatening to organize “a demonstration of Muslims” in front of the college to denounce the alleged “discrimination” suffered by his daughter, then aged 13.
The girl was sentenced last year to eighteen months in prison, suspended for slanderous denunciation.
But who is Abdelhakim Sefrioui?
Abdelhakim Sefrioui is a 65-year-old French-Moroccan Islamist preacher. A fervent defender of Islamist activism, he is the founder of the pro-Hamas association “Collectif Cheikh-Yassine”. This association was dissolved in October 2020.
Sefrioui was in the past an economics teacher in the public sector and in vocational high schools. He also ran bookstores.
Five days before the professor's assassination, he had filmed a video in front of the college entrance in which he denounced an Islamophobic France and described Samuel Paty as a “rogue” teacher who had committed a “despicable” act.
“If my video had not existed, it would not have changed anything” in the fate of Samuel Paty, he claimed in particular at the hearing, his lawyers maintaining that Abdoullakh Anzorov, the assassin of Samuel Paty, had not not seen their client's video.
“Sefrioui is a man of faith, of conviction but not at all radical,” testified his partner, Ikram H., 34, on the stand. For her, her companion “is not violent but just virulent”. During interrogation, he explained that he was looking for “just administrative sanctions” against the teacher.
Against Chnina and Sefrioui, the prosecution requested 10 and 12 years of criminal imprisonment respectively. They were sentenced to heavier sentences, 13 and 15 years in prison. Sefrioui intends to appeal the decision, according to statements from his lawyers.
