France –
At the assizes, the chilling story of the assassination of Samuel Paty
The evocation of the last minutes of the life of Professor Samuel Paty, assassinated in France by a radical Islamist on October 16, 2020, paralyzed the Paris Special Assize Court on Thursday.
The trial opened Monday, November 4 at the Special Assize Court of Paris. Eight people are on trial for having contributed to the hate campaign which led to the assassination of Samuel Paty,
AFP
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“There were 14 minutes between the exit of Samuel Paty from the college where he taught and the neutralization (of the killer) Abdoullakh Anzorov. At no time did Anzorov seem to lose his composure,” detailed an anti-terrorist investigator, who gave chilling testimony.
In the courtroom of the “major trials”, everyone holds their breath while the investigator describes the circumstances of the “very violent attack” on this professor from a college in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, in the Paris region.
In images captured by video surveillance, we see the professor, hood on his head, leaving his establishment. A student walks behind him.
A silhouette, all in black, appears. “It’s Abdoullakh Anzorov”, an 18-year-old Russian radical Islamist of Chechen origin, indicates the investigator who specifies that the man walks “with an energetic and determined step” in the direction of the professor, who is violently harassed and threatened on social networks since his lesson on freedom of expression ten days earlier.
The man dressed in black passes the schoolgirl, signals her to leave, says the investigator. The teenager sees the stranger take out a knife and run towards Samuel Paty. Panicked, she flees but has time to hear: “Allah Akbar!”. It is 4:54 p.m., Abdoullakh Anzorov has just beheaded Samuel Paty.
14 plagues
On the screens of the courtroom are broadcast images of the kitchen knife, stained with blood, which was used to stab and decapitate the teacher: with a total length of 35 cm, it has a blade of 19 cm by 4.5 cm thick.
The autopsy revealed 14 stab wounds on the professor’s body, notes the investigator, who specifies: “The decapitation took place just before or just after death, without this being able to be determined.”
The police quickly intervened. “With his hands reddened” by the victim’s blood, Anzorov fired several times at the police officers with a semi-automatic air-pressurized handgun before being shot dead. It was 5:04 p.m. when the police noticed his death.
Samuel Paty’s family is due to testify on Friday. Two young friends of the attacker, detained, are on trial for “complicity in terrorist assassination”, a crime punishable by life imprisonment. Six other people appear free and are accused of participation in a criminal terrorist association. They face 30 years in prison. The trial is scheduled until December 20.
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