France: 6 Teenagers Stand in Court for Beheading French History Teacher Samuel Paty in 2020

Six teenagers are set to face trial in closed-door proceedings, accused of involvement in the beheading of French history teacher Samuel Paty in 2020, an attack that shook the foundations of France's secular values.

Paty had displayed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad during a class on freedom of expression, which had offended some Muslim parents. Depictions of the Prophet are considered blasphemous in Islam, as per Reuters.

Samuel Party Trial Highlights French Free Speech Debate

(Photo : ALAIN JOCARD/AFP via Getty Images)
Members of the public stand in front of a photograph depicting French history and geography teacher Samuel Paty as they attend a tribute ceremony in Eragny-sur-Oise, northwestern Paris, on October 16, 2021, held one year after Paty was beheaded by an extremist after showing his class cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed. - Paty's violent death sent shockwaves through France and beyond, and was seen as an attack on the core values drilled by teachers into generations of schoolchildren, including the separation of church and state and the right to blaspheme.

Paty had used the cartoons as part of an ethics lesson to discuss France's laws on free speech, where blasphemy is allowed, and caricatures of religious figures have a long history. His murder occurred shortly after the Charlie Hebdo magazine republished the cartoons. In 2015, the magazine's office was attacked by Islamic extremists, resulting in the deaths of 12 people.

In a separate incident last month, another teacher named Dominique Bernard was killed in Arras, northern France, by a radicalized young Islamist. Similar to Paty's suspected killer, Anzorov, Bernard's assailant, Mohammed Moguchkov, also hailed from Russia's predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region.

Five of the adolescents on trial, who were 14 or 15 years old at the time of Paty's murder, will be tried behind closed doors in juvenile court for criminal conspiracy with the intent to commit violence. They are accused of having kept an eye on Paty and identifying him to the killer in exchange for money.

A sixth teenager, who was 13 at the time, is accused of false accusation for wrongly claiming that Paty had asked Muslim students to identify themselves and leave the classroom before showing the cartoons.

Paty's family considers the trial of these teenagers crucial, as the minors played a pivotal role in the events leading up to his assassination, according to News 18.

Teenagers on Trial for Samuel Paty's Murder

During questioning, the teenagers admitted that they thought, at most, Paty would be exposed on social media, humiliated, or possibly roughed up, but they never imagined it would escalate to murder. Now high school students, they face up to two-and-a-half years in prison.

The trial is scheduled to continue until December 8. Additionally, a sixth teenager, who was 13 at the time, is accused of making a false accusation by wrongly claiming that Paty had asked Muslim students to identify themselves and leave the classroom before showing the cartoons.

Her false allegation triggered violent reactions on social media by her father, Brahim Chnina, and militant Islamist Abdelhakim Sefrioui, who publicly denounced Paty by name. These two men, along with six others, will be tried in a criminal court in late 2024.

The trial is expected to shed light on the events that unfolded in the 10 days leading up to Paty's murder, from the false accusation to online attacks and the killer's arrival at the school on October 16, 2020. Anzorov, the perpetrator, approached one of the teenagers outside the school, offering him money to identify Paty.

The teenagers, who initially hesitated, eventually agreed, going back and forth between the school and Anzorov's hiding place, acting as lookouts or filming themselves with the money.

As the trial unfolds, it will provide further insight into the complex circumstances surrounding this tragic incident, highlighting the role of these teenagers in the sequence of events that culminated in Samuel Paty's assassination, France 24 reported.