Vincent Brengarth, one of Mr. Sefrioui's lawyers, immediately announced that his client was appealing his conviction. Ouadie Elhamamouchi, another of the preacher's lawyers, said his client was now “a political prisoner”. “I dissociate myself from these comments,” however, nuanced Me Brengarth, showing flaws in the preacher’s defense.
If the quantum of the sentences is not very different from what the prosecution demanded, the court chaired by Franck Zientara chose to maintain the offense of “complicity” for the two friends of Abdoullakh Anzorov, a radical Chechen Islamist from 18 years old, shot dead by the police shortly after his act.
The four other defendants, including a woman, belonging to the “jihadosphere” who was in contact with Anzorov on social networks, were also all sentenced to fixed or suspended prison sentences.
The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (Pnat) had requested sentences of between 18 months suspended prison time and 16 years of criminal imprisonment against the eight accused aged between 22 and 65.
The day before the attack, Naïm Boudaoud and Azim Epsirkhanov had accompanied Anzorov to Rouen to buy a knife (not the one used to decapitate Samuel Paty) which would be found at the crime scene. At the hearing, Boudaoud and Epsirkhanov repeated that Anzorov had explained to them that this knife was “a gift” for his grandfather.
On the day of the attack, October 16, 2020, Boudaoud, the only one who knew how to drive, accompanied the killer to an airsoft gun store then dropped him off near the college where Samuel Paty taught.
“Samuel Paty was neither a martyr nor a symbol”: the anti-terrorism prosecution rules out complicity for two accused
“Awareness of radicality”
The two young people “were aware of Anzorov's radicalism” and “that he had the desire to attack the physical integrity of a third party”, the court said.
However, underlined President Zientara, “it has not been demonstrated that (the two young people) were informed of Anzorov's intention to kill Samuel Paty.”
The Pnat magistrates had requested 14 years' imprisonment with a two-thirds security period against Boudaoud and 16 years' imprisonment also with a two-thirds security period against Epsirkhanov.
The court did not retain the two-thirds security period against them.
Brahim Chnina, father of the schoolgirl who lied when accusing the teacher of having discriminated against Muslim students in his class during a lesson on freedom of expression where he presented a caricature of Mohammed, posted messages and a video hostile to the professor from October 7.
Abdelhakim Sefrioui, founder of the (now dissolved) pro-Hamas association “Collectif Cheikh-Yassine”, described Samuel Paty as a “thug” in another video.
But there is no proof that Anzorov saw Mr. Sefrioui's video, his lawyers emphasized, adding that their client had not met the assassin of Samuel Paty.
MM. Chnina and Sefrioui, who went together to Samuel Paty's college on October 8, would not have acted together, had also brought forward their lawyers to contest the accusation of terrorist criminal association which weighed on them.
“The court considered that (Messrs. Chnina and Sefrioui) had prepared the conditions for a terrorist act,” said Mr. Zientara.
The court also sentenced Priscilla Mangel, 36, to 3 years in prison for inciting terrorism and Yusuf Cinar, 22, convicted of advocating terrorism, to one year in prison.
The court sentenced Ismaël Gamaev, 22 years old, (the only one of the eight accused to have admitted his guilt) to 5 years in prison including 30 months suspended and to 3 years in prison including 2 suspended Reunionese Louqmane Ingar.
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