Three years after the murder of professor Samuel Paty in France, the trial of six students who allegedly had something to do with the bloody crime begins on Monday in a juvenile court in Paris. On October 16, 2020, history teacher Paty, 47, was killed by an attacker in a Paris suburb and then decapitated. The crime was classified as an act of Islamic-motivated terrorism and generated international outrage.
Police shot and killed the 18-year-old perpetrator with Russian-Chechen roots. Before the crime, the teacher had agitated against the teacher on the Internet because he had shown caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in class on the topic of freedom of expression.
Five students who were 14 and 15 years old at the time of the crime are accused of forming a criminal organization and a 13-year-old student is accused of making a false accusation that would have triggered the crime. All defendants face up to two and a half years in prison. The trial lasts until December 8th. The court hears the case in camera.
The trial against eight adults, some of whom may have directly supported the attacker in preparing his crime, will only be concluded within a year. Among them are two friends of the perpetrator who, according to the prosecution, were aware of his plans. Both would have accompanied him when he bought weapons and one of them would also have taken him to the scene of the crime. Also accused are the father of the student who allegedly disclosed the accusations against Paty, as well as a man who allegedly posted videos of them on social media.