at the trial of the assassination of Samuel Paty, his relatives “urge justice to explain”

“I present myself as a mother who raises her child alone on a thread… A thread which leads to life but which is often shaken.” Jeanne A. stands straight in front of the microphone, her brown hair cascading down over her black jacket. In a clear voice, with contained emotion, the ex-partner of Samuel Paty, professor of history and geography stabbed then beheaded on October 16, 2020, chose to speak in his “proper name”but especially in the name of his 9 and a half year old boy. On this fifth day of hearing, Friday November 8, before the special assize court of Paris, the son of Samuel Paty came to attend for the first time the trial of the eight people accused of being involved, to varying degrees, in the assassination of his father. His small figure stands out on the civil parties' bench, too big for him.

“It’s his desire to be here”specifies Jeanne A. The boy listens attentively to his mother talking about their life, “marked for four years”including in all “everyday gestures”. “Hearing ambulance sirens, coming across armed police officers, seeing images from news channels in bars will generate stress and questions”exposes the one who had been separated for a year from the father of her child when he was murdered. “I have to force myself so that every day knives are part of our cutlery with which we eat. All blades, whatever they are, remind us of the attack.”

“I wonder what an injury like that does to a 5-year-old? That's a real question.”

Jeanne A., ex-partner of Samuel Paty

before the special assize court of Paris

Jeanne A. never forgets her son sitting a few meters behind her and weighs each of his words. “We are indirect victims, but the injury we received that day is very real”she confides.

“He has to live every day afraid that his mother will die at work, because I am also a teacher”continues this Spanish professor at the university. After the attack, Jeanne A. and her son remained living in Eragny-sur-Oise (Val-d'Oise), where Samuel Paty also lived. Until October 16, 2023, when knives were found in front of her boy's school. They then made the decision to move. “It’s so unfair. How to reassure a child ? The unimaginable happened to us. All we have to do is live with it.”she laments.

To her child who asked her if he could ask a question at the trial, she replied in the negative. But the ex-partner of Samuel Paty wishes “all the same, let the adult world hear what he has to say in his silence”. Ce “silence”which, according to her, “urges justice to explain, judge and, if necessary, condemn”. “Truth and justice, everyone will have heard these words”proclaims Jeanne A. “It’s just what he asks for his dad.”she insists, making herself, as the president of the special assize court of Paris points out, “a very clear interpreter” of his son.

“I’ve been trying to explain the inexplicable for four years, it’s dizzying.”

Jeanne A., ex-partner of Samuel Paty

before the special assize court of Paris

“If the trial helps to understand the mechanics which led to the attack and to clarify the responsibilities of each person, that will help me”, she implores at the end of her testimony.

After Jeanne A., two nieces and then the two sisters of Samuel Paty each speak in turn. While Gaëlle Paty reads a text that she prepared, entitled “Stand up”, she addresses the accused, who listen to the relatives of the murdered professor testify without blinking: “You, in the box, who had thrown my brother to pasture”, “it is your trial that has begun, you who put my brother on trial and sentenced him to death”. “I would like to say to the accused: 'Without you, Samuel would be alive today, everyone at their own level could have stopped this disastrous spiral'”would also like to declare his sister Mickaëlle, who succeeds him at the helm. “I ask for respect and decency in this trial. It is from justice that I expect answers, the rest is just sterile agitation.”

Mickaëlle Paty also talks about the personality of Samuel, her eldest, who was two years older than her. “My brother read a lot but also studied a lot. The greatest gift we could have [lui] to do was to offer him a work by La Pléiade”says this bookseller, who is also a teacher, like her brother and her parents, retired from National Education. If their father is absent due to a fall when he should also have come to testify at the trial, their mother wanted to speak to the special assize court of Paris, to describe the personality of their son .

Bernadette Paty first recounts her childhood, her passion for “Lego, Playmobil, his collection of butterflies, stamps, minerals”. “He loved books and especially history”she emphasizes. A taste transmitted by his father every evening at bedtime: “He didn't want to read him stories, he always told him the history of France and we are convinced that since that time, Samuel had a passion for history.” She describes her son as “worker” et “intellectual”. In accordance with his wishes, photos of the history and geography professor are projected on a large screen in the courtroom.

“Samuel was not a believer, my husband and I are not believers”continues Bernadette Paty, who specifies that she had brought him a copy of the Koran from a trip to Tunis, at his request. Samuel Paty's mother knew that her son wanted to show the caricatures of Mohammed published in Charlie Hebdo in moral and civics class, but she didn't know he was in trouble since he did it.

“He was extremely respectful of all religions.”

Bernadette Paty, the mother of the history and geography teacher

before the special assize court of Paris

“Losing a child in such conditions is terrible. We will never accept it. Knowing that he was massacred because he showed caricatures revolts us”this little woman with short hair, a pink scarf tied over a white sweater, is indignant. Bernadette Paty, who says she has received signs of support from all over the world, declares in conclusion that she must now “learning to survive without our son, his sisters without his brother and G. without his father”.