The trial of eight people accused of having played a role in the hate campaign which led to the assassination of Samuel Paty in October 2020 opened this Monday before the Special Assize Court of Paris. The history and geography professor in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, 47, was murdered by Abdoullakh Anzorova young Russian radical Islamist aged 18, of Chechen origin and beneficiary of asylum seeker status in France. The latter is largely absent from the trial since he was killed by the police shortly after stabbing and decapitating the professor.
The hearing began with verification of the identity of the eight accused. Among them, two young friends of the attacker who will have to answer for “complicity in terrorist assassination”, a crime punishable by life imprisonment. Naïm Boudaoud, 22 years oldand the Russian of Chechen origin Azim Epsirkhanov, 23 ansare in particular accused of having accompanied Anzorov to a cutlery in Rouen the day before the attack.
The six other accused, three of whom are under judicial supervision, appear free. They are being tried for participation in a criminal terrorist association, a crime punishable by 30 years of criminal imprisonment. Brahim Chnina, 52-year-old Moroccanis one of them. He is the father of the 13-year-old schoolgirl at the time, who falsely claimed (she was absent from class) that Samuel Paty had asked Muslim students to leave the class before showing caricatures of Mohammed. Brahim Chnina's daughter and five other ex-college students were sentenced last fall to sentences ranging from 14 months suspended to two years including six months in prison following a closed trial before the juvenile court.
“Arouse a feeling of hatred”
Judged at his side, Abdelhakim Sefrioui, 65-year-old Franco-Moroccan Islamist activist. The two men, in pre-trial detention for four years, massively relayed the teenager's lies on social networks with the aim, according to the prosecution, of “designate a target“, “arouse a feeling of hatred” et “thus prepare several crimes“They are both accused of participation in a terrorist criminal association.
Maître Vincent Brengarth, lawyer for Adbelhakim Sefrioui, said Monday on franceinfo that his client “is determined to demonstrate that he had absolutely nothing to do with the commission of this attack, neither directly nor indirectly“Accused of having participated.”the development and distribution of videos presenting false information intended to arouse a feeling of hatred“with regard to Samuel Paty, the lawyer considers that”He has been leading political battles in favor of people of the Muslim faith and Palestine for years. If he decided to broadcast this video, it was to denounce what he considered to be an act of discrimination“. “On the other hand, nothing establishes the slightest link between Mr. Sefrioui and the author of the attack“, he says.
Among the other accused, Priscilla Mangela thirty-year-old very active since adolescence in the world of radical Islam. She exchanged numerous messages with Abdoullakh Anzorov, particularly in the days preceding the attack, according to the prosecution. Three young men are accused of having provided ideological support to the terrorist: Yusuf Cinar, Ismail Gamaev and Louqmane Ingaraged 22. All three chatted with the terrorist via Snapchat groups.
Shock wave in French society
The assassination of Samuel Paty – which occurred in the middle of the trial of the attacks of January 7, 2015 against the editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo – constituted a shock wave in French society. “The tragic mechanism which resulted in the martyrdom of Samuel Paty reveals the depth of Islamist entryism in France and its porosity with terrorism. Its detailed presentation in public hearing must not only result in the severe condemnation of those who participated, but also raise awareness of our society in the face of a mortal danger.“, wish Thibault de Montbrial and Pauline Ragot, lawyers for Mickaëlle Paty, one of the sisters of the murdered professor.
“Without these various people, Samuel would be alive, so [ce procès] makes complete sense“, defends on franceinfo Virginie Le Roy, lawyer for the family of Samuel Paty. The absence of the assassin does not matter for the lawyer, “it makes a lot of sense, this trial“, since “two accomplices are dismissed and six people are there for terrorist conspiracy“. The professor's family, which she defends, is “determined to have explanations“and to obtain”the penalties imposed on the people in the box” of the accused.
Francis Szpiner, lawyer for other members of Samuel Paty's family, wished “that justice lives up to the crime that was committed, an unprecedented fact in the history of the Republic“. The hearing is chaired by Franck Zientara, an experienced magistrate who notably led the trial of the Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray attack.
Samuel Paty, a “lonely, frightened, desperate” man
The trial will be an opportunity to evoke the figure of Samuel Paty, a man “lonely, frightened, at bay“, according to the investigating magistrates.”I am threatened by local Islamists“, he wrote to his colleagues on October 10, 2020, four days after his course on freedom of expression. At no time will the threatened teacher benefit from police protection.
He, who was used to returning home on foot, asked colleagues to take him home by car the four days before his assassination. Except October 16, the day before school holidays, when no motorized teacher is available. A sad symbol of the feeling of insecurity that inhabited him, a paltry hammer was discovered in his backpack after his assassination. The trial is scheduled until December 20.
