Eight people are on trial in Paris, accused of abetting the murder of Samuel Paty, a teacher who was beheaded in the street outside his school four years ago.
Abdoullakh Anzorov, a young man of Chechen origin who was armed with a knife, was shot and killed by police within minutes of the attack.
The focus of the trial was therefore not the murder itself but the circumstances leading up to it.
Over seven weeks, a court will hear how a 13-year-old girl’s lies spiraled out of control on social media, sparking an international hate campaign and inspiring a lonely mission of revenge from a self-proclaimed defender of Islam.
Two of the men on trial are accused of identifying Mr Partey as a “blasphemer” on the internet, with two of Anzorov’s friends allegedly providing him with logistical help and four others offering support via a chat line.
Mr Paty’s murder shocked France.
He is a dedicated and well-liked history teacher at a secondary school in Conflans-Saint-Honorine, a prosperous western suburb of Paris.
On October 6, 2020, he taught a group of teenagers a lesson about free speech—the same lesson he had given several times before.
drawn on The famous tragic episode of Charlie Hebdo magazine – How the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad led to the murder of most of his employees in 2015 – He briefly showed an example of cartoons.
Until then, he advises those worried about being offended to look away.
The next day, the father of one of his students, a 13-year-old girl, asked her why she didn’t go to school.
She told him she was being disciplined because she dared to resist when Mr. Patty asked Muslims to leave class so he could show him nude photos of the Prophet.
This is a triple lie.
Mr Patty did not tell Muslims to leave the classroom. The girl was disciplined, but not for the reasons she said. She wasn’t even in the room the day Mr. Patty gave a class on free speech.
But as the internet spread, the lies began to spread…and spread.
First, the girl’s father, Brahim Chnina, made her repeat the statement in a video he posted on Facebook, where he named the teacher.
Then local Islamist Abdelhakim Sefrioui created a 10-minute online video titled “Islam and the Prophet insulted at public universities.”
Within days, the school was inundated with threats and hateful messages from around the world. Patty told colleagues he was going through a difficult time because of the campaign against him.
Meanwhile, the denunciation caught the attention of an 18-year-old Chechen refugee living 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Rouen.
Anzorov made the initial note on his phone, which read: “A teacher showed his class a nude photo of the Messenger of God.”
Anzorov then sought help from two friends and is currently on trial.
One of them was allegedly present at a shop in Rouen when he bought a knife. On October 16, the day of the attack, another person bought him two replica handguns and drove him to school.
The final four defendants – including one woman – were people Anzorov had spoken to on Snapchat and Twitter, and who allegedly gave him encouragement.
The defendant admitted his involvement in the case, but questioned the charges of “terrorist association” or “conspiracy to commit terrorist murders.”
Lawyers for the girl’s father and the Islamic preacher will argue that although they publicly condemned Mr Patty, they never called for his murder.
Likewise, lawyers for Anzorov’s friends (real and online) will say they had no idea he planned to kill.
For prosecutors, context is key. Samuel Paty’s murder comes amid growing awareness of the jihadist threat. Charlie Hebdo just republished some of its cartoons in October 2020 to mark the start of the trial over the original attacks.
The Internet is awash with new Islamic threats against France. In late September, a Pakistani man hacked two people with a machete In the former offices of Charlie Hebdo.
Prosecutors will argue that in this climate, publicly denouncing a person for blasphemy is tantamount to designating a terrorist target.
A year ago, the girl at the center of the case was Convicted in juvenile court on false charges and sentenced to probation.
Five other students were also convicted of identifying Mr Party as Anzarov in exchange for money.
The trial is expected to last until the end of December.
