When the verdict was announced, relatives of certain defendants appeared threatening. Mickaëlle Paty had to leave through a back door.
The trial of seven men and one woman, accused of being involved to varying degrees in the assassination of Professor Samuel Paty in October 2020, ended on the evening of Friday, December 20. The Paris Special Assize Court sentenced the eight defendants to sentences of up to 16 years in prison, most of which were harsher than those required by the prosecution.
At the end of the trial, the sister of the deceased professor Samuel Paty, Mickaëlle Paty had to be exfiltrated, according to her testimony given to Le Figaro on Sunday December 22. She had attended the verdict on the civil parties' bench. “As soon as the sentences were announced, the already electric atmosphere became even more tense in the room, forcing the sister of the murdered professor to hastily leave the premises under good police escort,” details the daily.
“I left through a back door”
The relatives of the accused, who “formed a huge block in the courtroom, became increasingly noisy,” she said. Adding: “After the verdict, this hubbub grew and I distinctly heard relatives of the accused attacking me verbally: the family of Brahim Chnina, in particular, turned to me and some said ' it's her fault, she goes on TV every day, this morning she was on BFM'”, reports RMC. She explains that the gendarmes “three times more numerous than usual” intervened, while Chnina's family was heading towards her.
“I left with a friend through a back door of the courthouse, under the escort of the gendarmes, and we were exfiltrated from the side into a maze of passageways. The gendarmes did not leave us until we're in the taxi,” she added.
15 and 16 years of imprisonment for the two men at the heart of the case
On October 16, 2020, Samuel Paty, professor of history and geography, was the victim of a barbaric assassination, very close to his college in Bois d'Aulne, in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines). The author, a young Chechen radical Islamist named Abdoullakh Anzorov, was shot dead by the police in the process.
At the heart of the case, Brahim Chnina, who had relayed the lies of his daughter, a schoolgirl, was sentenced to 13 years of criminal imprisonment. Islamist preacher Abdelhakim Sefrioui was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The two men were at the origin of the hate campaign on social networks against Samuel Paty. They were found guilty of terrorist conspiracy.
Among the other defendants, the killer's friends, Naïm Boudaoud and Azim Epsirkhanov, were found guilty of complicity in murder and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
