The verdict is in. The schoolgirl's father was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the assassination of Professor Samuel Paty. He was found guilty of terrorist conspiracy, just like the preacher Abdelhakim Sefrioui, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The friends of Samuel Paty's killer, Naïm Boudaoud and Azim Epsirkhanov, were sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Ismaïl Gamaev, who exchanged messages about jihad with the terrorist on social networks, was sentenced to 5 years in prison with a probationary suspension of 3 years. A sentence he has already served. Yusuf Cinar, convicted of promoting online terrorism, was sentenced to 1 year's imprisonment and mandatory socio-judicial monitoring.
The day before, the trial ended Thursday before the Special Assize Court of Paris with the last words of the accused before the verdict. Eight people involved to varying degrees in the assassination on October 16, 2020 of the history and geography professor by a radical Chechen Islamist, Abdoullakh Anzorov, shot dead shortly after the incident by the police, had been appearing before the court since November 4.
The Islamist preacher Abdelhakim Sefrioui, 65, behind, with his co-defendant Brahim Chnina, a 52-year-old Moroccan, the “hate campaign” against Samuel Paty, were both prosecuted for terrorist criminal association ( AMT), an offense punishable by 30 years of criminal imprisonment.
“I have nothing to do with this crime unworthy of all humanity,” said the preacher, who did not hesitate to describe Samuel Paty as a “thug” in a video posted on October 11, five days before the assassination of the professor.
Brahim Chnina, the father of the schoolgirl who lied by falsely 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, had assured for his part that he “hated” terrorists.
“Mountain of Despair”
“Anzorov took the truth with him,” Azim Epsirkhanov, a young Russian of Chechen origin like the assassin of Professor Paty, had said the day before in a barely audible voice. “In no way did we participate in anything,” he said. “For four years I have been facing a mountain that prevents me from seeing the horizon (…) The mountain of despair,” said Naïm Boudaoud.
VideoAssassination of Samuel Paty: 8 accused before the Paris Special Assize Court
“I have suffering that is not at all equal to that of Samuel Paty's family. I never wanted to hurt anyone. I am incapable of helping someone to do harm,” he added.
Naïm Boudaoud and Azim Epsirkhanov are accused of having helped Anzorov to obtain weapons the day before the attack and, for Boudaoud, of having accompanied him to the area around the Conflans-Sainte-Honorine college where Samuel Paty worked on October 16 2020.
