General
Second Trial in Teacher’s Killing Begins in France
Eight more people are facing charges over the 2020 murder of the teacher, Samuel Paty, who had displayed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad as an illustration of free speech.
Eight people went on trial in Paris on Monday in connection with the murder of Samuel Paty, a history teacher whose beheading by an Islamist terrorist in 2020 shocked France and put the nation on edge.
Mr. Paty was stabbed and decapitated in October 2020 outside his school near Paris by Abdoullakh Anzorov, an 18-year-old Russian of Chechen descent angered by the teacher’s display of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to illustrate free speech in class.
Mr. Anzorov, who was shot and killed by the police shortly after the violent assault, had learned about Mr. Paty through an online smear campaign. Most of the defendants in the trial that got underway on Monday in Paris are accused of participating in that cyberbullying and misinformation campaign, of encouraging Mr. Anzorov’s attack, and of glorifying it on social media. They face charges of participating in a criminal terrorist conspiracy.
Twoothers are former friends of Mr. Anzorov who are accused of helping him procure a knife and two pellet guns for the attack. They could face life in prison if convicted on charges of complicity in the murder.
The defendants range in age from 22 to 65. More than 90 people are likely to testify in the trial, which is expected to run until late December.
France was hit by Islamist terror attacks in 2015 and 2016 that killed over 200 people and stunned the nation. Mr. Paty’s murder heaped more trauma on the country, where secularism and freedom of speech are considered fundamental values, best taught and defended by its public schoolteachers.
