Six teenagers appear in court over beheading of French teacher

PARIS: Six teenagers go on trial behind closed doors on Monday, accused of involvement in the beheading of French history teacher Samuel Paty in 2020.

The teacher had shown his pupils blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in a class on freedom of expression, angering a number of Muslim parents.

Five of the teenagers have been charged with criminal conspiracy with intent to cause violence for having accepted money to identify Paty to Abdoullakh Anzorov, who then stabbed and him near the school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.

Anzorov, who was 18 at the time and shot dead by police at the scene, murdered Paty after messages spread on social media that the history and geography teacher had shown cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed from the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo to his class during a discussion on free speech laws in France.

Paty, 47, was killed outside his school in a Paris suburb by an 18-year-old assailant, born in Russia of Chechen origin, who was shot dead by police soon after the attack.

One of the minors is a 15-year-old girl who allegedly told her parents that Paty had shown caricatures of the prophet in her class. She will be charged with false accusation after it was established that she was not in the class when it happened.

The five other minors to be prosecuted, aged between 14 and 15 at the time of the attack, will be charged with premeditated criminal conspiracy, or ambush.

They are suspected of having pointed out Paty to the murderer or helped monitor his exit from the school. All six minors were referred to the children’s court and could face 2.5 years in prison. The hearings, due to last until December 8, will be held behind closed doors.

Eight other people will be tried at a later date. The defendants include two of Anzorov’s friends who allegedly accompanied him to buy the murder weapon.