World Courant
Eight individuals are on trial in Paris, accused of encouraging the assassin of Samuel Paty, the instructor who was beheaded on the street in entrance of his college 4 years in the past.
Abdoullakh Anzorov, the younger man of Chechen descent who wielded the knife, is lifeless – shot by police within the minutes after his assault.
The trial is subsequently much less in regards to the homicide itself, and extra in regards to the circumstances that led to it.
Over seven weeks, the courtroom will hear how a 13-year-old schoolgirl’s lie spiraled uncontrolled due to social media, sparking a global marketing campaign of hate and provoking a lone revenge mission from a self-styled defender of Islam.
On trial are two males accused of figuring out Mr Paty as a “blasphemer” by way of the web, two of Anzorov’s associates who allegedly supplied him with logistical assist, and 4 others who supplied assist by means of chatlines.
Mr Paty’s homicide has horrified – and petrified – France.
He was a conscientious and well-liked historical past instructor at a secondary college in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, within the prosperous western suburbs of Paris.
On October 6, 2020, he taught a lesson on freedom of speech – the identical lesson he had taught a number of instances earlier than – to a category of younger youngsters.
Based mostly on the tragically well-known episode of Charlie Hebdo journal – how the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed had led to the homicide of many of the employees in 2015 – he briefly confirmed an instance of the cartoons.
Earlier than doing this, he suggested those that feared being offended to avert their eyes.
The following day, one among his college students – the 13-year-old woman – was requested by her father why she was not going to highschool.
She advised him she had been punished for daring to face as much as Mr Paty when he advised Muslims to depart the classroom so he may present a nude picture of the Prophet.
It was a three-fold lie.
Mr. Paty had not advised the Muslims to depart the classroom. The woman had been punished, however not for the rationale she stated. She hadn’t even been within the room the day Mr. Paty gave the free speech lesson.
However due to the Web, the lie unfold… and unfold.
First, the woman’s father – Brahim Chnina – made her repeat the declare on movies he posted on Fb, wherein he talked about the instructor.
Then, a neighborhood Islamist – Abdelhakim Sefrioui – created a 10-minute on-line video titled “Islam and the Prophet Insulted at a Public College.”
Inside just a few days, the college was inundated with threats and messages of hate from everywhere in the world. Paty advised colleagues that he was going by means of a troublesome time due to the marketing campaign in opposition to him.
In the meantime, the indictment had caught the eye of an 18-year-old Chechen refugee residing in Rouen, 50 miles (80 km) to the west.
Anzorov made an preliminary word on his telephone that learn: “A instructor confirmed his class a photograph of the bare Messenger of Allah.”
Anzorov then sought the assistance of two associates, who are actually on trial.
One among them is claimed to have been current when he purchased a knife in a store in Rouen. The opposite helped him purchase two duplicate pistols on October 16, the day of the assault, after which took him to the college.
The 4 ultimate defendants – together with one lady – are folks Anzorov spoke to on Snapchat and Twitter and who allegedly inspired him.
The defendants admit their involvement within the case, however dispute the accusations of “terrorist affiliation” or “complicity within the fee of a terrorist homicide”.
Attorneys for the woman’s father and the Islamist preacher will argue that whereas they’ve publicly condemned Paty, they’ve by no means referred to as for his homicide.
In an analogous vein, legal professionals for Anzorov’s associates – each bodily and on-line – will say they’d no thought he was planning a homicide.
For the prosecutor, context is essential. The homicide of Samuel Paty occurred at a time of elevated consciousness of the jihadist risk. In October 2020, Charlie Hebdo had simply republished some cartoons to mark the beginning of a lawsuit stemming from the unique assault.
The Web was full of recent Islamic threats in opposition to France In late September, a Pakistani man injured two folks with a machete within the former workplace of Charlie Hebdo.
In that local weather, publicly charging a person with blasphemy was tantamount to designating a terrorist goal, prosecutors will argue.
A yr in the past that was the woman on the middle of the case convicted by a juvenile courtroom of creating false accusations and given a suspended jail sentence.
5 different college students have been additionally convicted for figuring out Mr Paty for Anzarov in alternate for cash.
The trial will run till the tip of December.
