A French court on Friday delivered severe sentences to several individuals found guilty of involvement in the jihadist beheading of schoolteacher Samuel Paty in 2020, AFP reported.
Paty, 47, was beheaded in October 2020 by Abdoullakh Anzorov, an 18-year-old Islamist radical of Chechen origin, after showing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed during a class discussion on free speech.
Anzorov was killed in a police shootout shortly after the attack.
Two of his associates, Naim Boudaoud, 22, and Azim Epsirkhanov, 23, were convicted of complicity in the murder and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Prosecutors accused them of providing Anzorov with logistical support, including helping him acquire weapons.
Epsirkhanov admitted to receiving €800 from Anzorov to procure a real firearm, though he failed to do so. Boudaoud was found to have accompanied Anzorov on the day of the attack to purchase two replica guns and steel pellets.
Two additional defendants were convicted of terrorist criminal association for their roles in inciting hatred against Paty before his murder.
Brahim Chnina, a 52-year-old Moroccan father of a schoolgirl who falsely claimed that Paty had asked Muslim students to leave the room before showing the caricatures, received a 13-year prison sentence.
Chnina’s daughter, who was 13 at the time, was not present in the classroom and later apologized to Paty’s family during the trial.
Abdelhakim Sefrioui, a 65-year-old Franco-Moroccan Islamist activist, was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Prosecutors argued that Chnina and Sefrioui spread lies about Paty on social media, aiming to provoke hatred and create conditions that led to his murder.
Four others, linked to a network of jihadist sympathizers who disseminated inflammatory content online, were also convicted and received either prison or suspended sentences.
A total of 14 people faced trial in France over Paty’s beheading.
In the days after the beheading, French authorities detained dozens of people, including four members of the killer's family.
Following Paty’s beheading, the French government issued an order to dissolve a domestic pro-Hamas Islamic group, Collective Cheikh Yassine, which is named after the founder of Hamas.
