A precedent-setting verdict was expected—and that is exactly what happened. In the trial against the instigators and accomplices in the terrorist murder of Samuel Paty, a teacher from a Parisian suburb, all eight defendants were found guilty. Seven men and one woman were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to sixteen years. The court found them guilty of varying degrees of involvement in the murder. The MENA Research Center has already reported extensively on the trial. The court was convinced that their actions four years ago contributed to Paty’s death. The terrorist himself, an 18-year-old refugee from Chechnya, was shot dead by police after the crime.
Paty was beheaded with a knife on October 16, 2020, near his school in the small town of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. The attacker, an 18-year-old Islamist of Chechen origin named Abdullah Anzorov, was shot dead by police shortly afterward. The crime was classified as an Islamist-motivated terrorist attack and caused international outrage.
Before the attack, the 47-year-old history and geography teacher had been targeted online because he had shown caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad during a lesson on freedom of speech. He had given Muslim students the option to close their eyes or leave the classroom.
However, a female student told her father that Paty had deliberately expelled Muslim students from the classroom to humiliate the Prophet. Her father, Brahim Chnina, then launched a defamation campaign—which ultimately inspired the young Chechen Anzorov to commit his crime.
Among those who stood trial were Chnina and Abdelhakim Sefrioui. The well-known Franco-Moroccan Islamist had spread the lies about Paty on social media. The court concluded that he had effectively issued a “digital fatwa” against the teacher. The judges sentenced Chnina to 13 years and Sefrioui to 15 years in prison.
Two friends of the attacker, Azim Epsirkhanov and Naim Boudaoud, were also arrested. The court found that they were aware of Anzorov’s plans, had helped him acquire the murder weapon, and had driven him to the crime scene. They were sentenced to 13 and 15 years in prison, respectively.
Four other individuals, including a woman, who belonged to the so-called “Jihadosphere” and had been in contact with Anzorov via social media, were also found guilty, though they received significantly shorter prison sentences. The verdict angered the plaintiffs, who had already expressed outrage at what they saw as the prosecution’s “too lenient” sentencing demands. Meanwhile, the defense had called for acquittals in most cases, denying the defendants’ “terrorist intent.”
Mickaëlle Paty, the murdered teacher’s sister, had criticized before the trial that her brother had been abandoned by colleagues. There had been indications before the murder that he might be in danger. Outrage was also sparked by those who blamed Paty himself and his supposedly “rigid” understanding of secularism. Mickaëlle filed a complaint against a Sorbonne doctoral student after he posted on X that the tragedy would never have happened without the “Islamophobia” prevailing in France. The academic wrote verbatim: “Paty was probably a secular Islamophobe.”
The victims’ lawyer criticized the sentences as inadequate for the severity of the crime. “It is not every day that a teacher is beheaded in broad daylight,” she said. “I miss a strong response from the judiciary, a clear stop signal.” Francis Spziner, the lawyer representing Paty’s former partner and their son, also expressed his dismay. “The crime against Samuel Paty marks a rupture in the history of the Republic. For the first time, a teacher was killed for practicing his profession,” Spziner said. He argued that the accomplices deserved exemplary punishment.
The suspended sentences continue to be a controversial topic in political talk shows. Many see the lenient punishments as a worrying signal, especially as threats against teachers are increasing. At a middle school in the town of Issou, west of Paris, teachers went on strike after a female teacher was threatened by Muslim students and parents. She had discussed the painting Diana and Actaeon by Italian artist Giuseppe Cesari in an art class. The artwork features five nude women. Many students turned away and condemned the nudity as an insult to their religion.
