Sentences of fourteen months in prison, suspended to six months in prison, were handed down on Friday, December 8, against the six college students tried for their involvement in the assassination of Samuel Paty in 2020.
Six minors involved in the assassination of Samuel Paty, which occurred on October 16, 2020, were tried. After two weeks of trial, sentences ranging from fourteen months suspended prison sentence to six months in prison were handed down on Friday December 8. The defendants were all former students of the history and geography professor who taught at the Bois d’Aulne college in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, in Yvelines. Five of them were appearing for “criminal conspiracy to prepare aggravated violence” and the sixth defendant, the youngest, was tried for “slanderous denunciation”. Aged 13 to 15 at the time of the events, they were involved in one way or another in the murder of Samuel Paty.
The young girl accused of slanderous denunciation, aged 13 at the time of the facts, was sentenced to eighteen months in prison, indicates BFM TV. She had claimed that Samuel Paty had broadcast “obscene caricatures” of the Prophet Mohammed in class and that he had asked Muslim students to leave class. In reality, she had lied and not attended that class, since she had been kicked out of the school for two days at that point. However, the disastrous machine was launched. Indeed, following this lie, the young girl’s father launched a campaign of denigration and violence against the professor on social networks. It was through this intermediary that Abdoullakh Anzorov, a Russian refugee of Chechen origin, prepared his murder against Samuel Paty. The assailant was shot dead by police after decapitating the professor.
The five other defendants, who were then 14 and 15 years old, were tried for conspiracy to commit aggravated violence. The one who had kept watch and had designated Samuel Paty as the attacker in exchange for 300 euros was sentenced to twenty-four months in prison, 18 of which were suspended. The six-month prison sentence against him can be adjusted using an electronic bracelet, indicates Franceinfo. During various hearings, the defendant admitted to having understood that Abdoullakh Anzorov wanted to “hit or kill” Samuel Paty. He then said that he thought the assailant wanted to “fight” but not that he was going to kill the teacher. Four of his friends, who were co-defendants alongside him, helped him keep watch and pointed out the professor to the assailant.
The sentences handed down were ordered taking into account “the seriousness of the facts”, the “personality” of the adolescents and their “development”, while the offenses were “perfectly established”, declared the children’s court in its judgment. The trial took place behind closed doors due to the age of the defendants at the time of the events. A second trial will take place at the end of 2024 to try eight adults accused of being involved in this assassination. Among them are the father of the accused teenager and Islamist activist Abdelhakim Sefrioui.
