MADRID Dec. 20 () –
A Paris court has sentenced eight defendants for the murder of Professor Samuel Paty in 2020 at the hands of a young Islamist of Chechen origin to sentences of between three and 16 years for a beheading that raised the threat of jihadist terrorism in France.
Naïm Boudaoud and Azim Epsirkhanov, the two friends of Abdulaj Anzorov, the murderer killed by the Police after the murder, have been sentenced for complicity to 16 years in prison, according to the French radio station France Info.
Boudaoud and Epsirkhanov accompanied Anzorov to purchase the knife in the city of Rouen, which was later found at the crime scene. During the trial, both have defended that the dejected murderer told them that it was a gift for his grandfather.
On the other hand, one of those responsible for launching a cyberbullying campaign against Paty, Brahim Chnina, father of the schoolgirl who accused the teacher of showing caricatures of Muhammad in class considered obscene, has been sentenced by criminal terrorist association to thirteen years in prison. .
Similarly, the Islamist activist Abdelhakim Sefriui, who participated together with Chnina in the production and dissemination of videos about Paty with the aim of inciting a feeling of hatred against her, has been sentenced for criminal terrorist association to 15 years in prison.
The other four defendants in the case — Priscilla Mangel, Yusuf Cinar, Ismail Gamaev and Louqmane Ingar — have received sentences ranging from one to five years in prison for being guilty of conspiracy to commit terrorist acts.
Gamaev, Ingar and Cinar, who shared a Snapchat group with Anzorov that spread jihadist propaganda, have been sentenced to five, three and one year in prison, respectively. For her part, Mangel, who exchanged numerous messages with the murderer on social networks, has been sentenced to three years in prison.
The trial for the murder of Paty – a History and Geography teacher at the Conflans Sainte Honorine school, located in the Yvelines department – began at the beginning of November. The teacher showed in class some caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in the satirical magazine ‘Charlie Hebdo’, drawings repudiated by the Muslim world and of tragic memory for the French.
In December 2023, six additional defendants – all of them teenagers – were convicted of making false accusations and organizing a criminal conspiracy with the intent to provoke violence. Four of them had their sentences suspended, including Chnina’s daughter, sentenced to 18 months in prison.
The murder of the 47-year-old professor shocked France and led President Emmanuel Macron to intensify surveillance and repression against Islamist activism.
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