“I would like to apologize to the family” of Samuel Paty, “I destroyed your life, I am sorry”, admitted Tuesday at the bar of the special criminal court of Paris the young girl whose “ repeated lies” led to the murder of the history teacher.
In a short pleated skirt, sleeveless black zipped vest over a white shirt, Nina (her first name has been changed), 17 years old, dark complexion, hair tied up in a bun, earrings in her ears, speaks in a very low voice, seeming to measure each of his words.
In the box, an accused listens to him attentively: it is his father, Brahim Chnina, 52, prosecuted for having published messages and then “hateful” videos against Samuel Paty on social networks.
Due to her family ties with one of the accused, Nina does not have to take an oath but “that does not prevent you from speaking frankly”, warns President Franck Zientara.
This is not the first time that Nina has appeared. Last December, the Paris children's court sentenced her to 18 months in prison with suspended probation for slanderous denunciation following a closed-door trial.
The young girl recounts how she lied to her parents to justify her two-day exclusion from college. A dissipated and not very studious student according to the testimonies of former teachers, she was excluded for her unjustified absences and her behavior.
But the version she gives to her mother is very different.
“Under panic and stress, I told him that I had been to a class and that I did not agree, that the teacher excluded me. That we saw caricatures,” she said.
Brahim Chnina wastes no time in denouncing a “rogue” professor on social networks whom he cites by name. He was quickly joined by the experienced Islamist activist Abdelhakim Sefrioui (also in the dock). Presenting himself as a “journalist”, Sefrioui does an interview with Nina in front of the school gates, blurting out the answers as he goes. The young girl, then aged 13, repeated her lies.
With her father, she will file a complaint at the police station against Samuel Paty.
– Stubbornness –
“I told myself that someone was going to stop me in my lie but no one said that I was not in class. I told myself that everyone believed me (…) I was no longer managing my lie,” Nina explains.
The announcement of the death of Samuel Paty will not change anything in his stubbornness.
It was only during her police custody, after 30 hours of interrogation, that the young girl finally admitted, but too late, that she had lied.
Throughout her testimony, the young girl shows little emotion… except when she talks about her father.
“I want to apologize to my family, to my parents. Because of my lie, we all find ourselves here. I wanted to apologize to my father (…) without my lie, no one would be there,” she sobbed. “I took advantage of my father's naivety and kindness (…) In no case could he say that what I said was false.”
“My father says you have to respect teachers all the time,” she continues.
“Oh good? Okay,” the president can’t help but react.
“Today, if a person should be condemned, it is not the people in the box but me,” Nina repeats.
Me Frank Berton, one of his father's counsel, asks him to look at his father in the box.
“How long has it been since you saw him?” asks the lawyer.
“Four, five months,” replies the young girl, her voice trembling.
“Has your father changed? Has he aged?” continues the lawyer.
The young girl bursts into tears.
Leaving the courtroom, Me Virginie Le Roy, lawyer for the Paty family, was surprised by the witness's changes of heart.
“A year ago, she indicated that her father was responsible, that her father had issued a digital fatwa and that she had been manipulated. Today, she comes to tell us that she is responsible for everything. We must not not make fun of the world.”
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