At the trial for the assassination of Samuel Paty, the highly anticipated interrogation of the father of the schoolgirl who had accused the professor

This man's daughter had lied by saying that the history and geography teacher had shown caricatures of Mohammed in class. The fifty-year-old is being prosecuted for having published hateful messages and videos against Samuel Paty on social networks.

Brahim Chnina is the father of the schoolgirl who lied by claiming that Samuel Paty had asked Muslim students to leave his class before showing caricatures of Mohammed, when his daughter was not even present in class. He is to be one of eight accused to be heard on Monday December 2. Prosecuted for having published hateful messages and videos against Samuel Paty on social networks, he faces 30 years in prison for criminal terrorist association. For teachers, this parent of a student has a big responsibility in the death of their colleague.

“Why is he making a video rather than using the college messaging system or talking about it directly with the professor concerned?”asks Mathias, an English teacher at the college where Samuel Paty taught. The father had gone to the college, but not “necessarily with the appropriate formula”judge Mathias. “When we come to college, we introduce ourselves, and we don’t come with someone who pretends to be an imam to put pressure on the educational community and the principal.”

Mathias wants “really try to understand this aggressive behavior which caused our colleague to no longer be there”. He was one of those who accompanied Samuel Paty home by car when the threats began. Like the other teachers stationed at the Bois d'Aulne college in 2020, the attack turned his life upside down.

Charlie still has terrible images in his mind: the body of his colleague, lying on the sidewalk, a few seconds after the assassination. Today, he would like the father of the student and the preacher who accompanied him to answer his questions: “I want to know what they have to say and if they assume responsibility, at least in part, knowing that what is reported a priori from their hearings is that they assume nothing. I am emotionally prepared to that, even if it's going to be hard.”

Charlie will be able to count on the support of his colleagues. Since the start of the trial, these professors have followed the hearings together. A solidarity, a team spirit, which has characterized this group for four years.