Five former students of the Bois d’Aulne college, in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, appear before the Paris children’s court for “criminal terrorist association” and another for “slanderous denunciation”. They will be heard behind closed doors until December 8.
His assassination by an Islamist terrorist caused immense emotion throughout the country a little over three years ago. The first trial in the context of the attack which cost the life of Samuel Paty opens Monday November 27. Six teenagers appear before the Paris children’s court, where they will be heard until December 8, behind closed doors, since they were minors at the time of the history and geography professor’s death.
While the trial of the eight major suspects will take place at the end of 2024, this first part concerns five students from the Bois d’Aulne college in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines), accused of having named Samuel Paty as his killer, on the day of his assassination. They appear for “criminal association with a view to preparing aggravated violence” and are currently at liberty, under judicial supervision.
A minor sixth,daughter of the preacher Brahim Chnina, will be judged for “slanderous denunciation”. It was through her that the spiral that led to the beheading of Samuel Paty began. In 4th grade at the time of the events, and then aged 13, she had accused the teacher of having broadcast “obscene caricatures” during a lesson on October 5, 2020 and asked Muslim students to leave the class, so as not to shock them. She claimed to have stood up to her teacher and to have been excluded for two days for this reason.
A lie at the origin of the tragedy
Hearing this, his father, Brahim Chnina, published several vindictive messages on Facebook on October 7, inviting those who followed him to “write a letter to the school principal to fire this patient [Samuel Paty]“. He also posted a video on October 8 which circulated on social networks. The same day, he filed a complaint against the teacher, accompanied by his daughter, for “dissemination of pornographic images”. He also met the principal of the college, accompanied by Islamist preacher Abdelhakim Sefrioui, to demand the dismissal of Samuel Paty.
After the tragedy, investigators from the anti-terrorist sub-directorate (Sdat) quickly discovered, by questioning her classmates, that the schoolgirl never attended the famous course, which had in fact taken place on October 6. Furthermore, Samuel Paty never asked Muslim students to leave the classroom: he simply suggested that those who wished to look away, showing a caricature for only a few seconds.
After denying the facts during her first two hearings, the teenager ended up admitting to having lied. Excluded from college because of her chatter, she invented this lie to cover her exclusion, according to her hearing cited in the final indictment of the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat), consulted by franceinfo. The teenager was indicted for “slanderous denunciation” after her false complaint. His lawyer, Mbeko Tabula, assures that his client, now aged 16, “couldn’t have imagined that things would degenerate this way”adding that “the tragedy of the beheading of Samuel Paty continues to haunt her. She is rebuilding herself and preparing to face a judgment with considerable stakes.”.
A bundle of 300 euros to nominate Samuel Paty
As for the five other minors, we must return to the day of the attack, October 16, 2020, to understand the charges against them. Around 3 p.m., one of the young college students aged 14 at the time of the events, Sofiane*, was arrested by the terrorist, Abdoullakh Anzorov, who was in an adjacent street. The man who is going to take action offers him 300 euros against the identification of Samuel Paty at the end of class. The teenager accepts.
He admitted during his second hearing that he understood that Abdoullakh Anzorov wanted “hit or kill” the teacher. “I suspected he was going to do something really stupid, because we don’t offer a large sum of money like that”, he told investigators. He then qualified his remarks during his third hearing, maintaining: “I thought he was going to fight (…) Deep down, I didn’t believe he was going to kill him”. The terrorist also asks him to call Brahim Chnina’s daughter, to verify the veracity of his accusations concerning Samuel Paty. On loudspeaker, the young girl confirms her version.
Once his mission is established, Sofiane rushes to find his comrades and shows them the amount, in small denominations, “to brag”, he admitted to investigators. He offers to several of them, including his four co-accused, to help him keep watch, in the company of the assailant, to wait for Samuel Paty to leave, in exchange for part of the sum, what they accept.
“The teacher is over there!”
During their respective police custody, they maintain that Abdoullakh Anzorov, with whom they spoke, told them that he intended to “force” the teacher to “apologize for what he did and humiliate him.” “He didn’t tell us he wanted to kill him,” declares one of them. Another still admits to having found “Weird that a guy pays 300 euros just for an apology. With our friends, we imagined things, that he was going to kill him or kidnap him”.
Still according to their statements, a few minutes before the attack, the attacker decided to hide at the end of an alley, fearing being controlled by the municipal police, who were circulating at that time. He asks part of the group to follow him and the other to keep watch. Around 4:45 p.m., Samuel Paty finally left the school alone. The small group rushes towards him to point him out as the terrorist, shouting: “The teacher is over there!” The killer orders the students to leave the premises and follows the teacher a few meters running, before murdering him in the middle of the street. The police intervened a few minutes later to shoot him dead.
Part of the group of college students who had dispersed still had time to see the bloody body of the professor. This is the case of Sofiane, who declared, in tears during her second police custody, having seen “the trunk of the headless professor’s body”. “There was blood everywhere (…) I don’t feel well, I’m ashamed”, he then said to the police.
The trial, “a sword of Damocles” for the young accused
“There is no indifference on his part to what happened, on the contrary,” underlines his lawyer, Pierre-Alexandre Kopp, who does not wish to speak before the hearing. Dylan Slama, lawyer for another young defendant, observes a lot of“hasapprehension and anxiety” at his client. “But it is also a form of relief for him to see this deadline arrive, which he has had in his head for a long time, like a sword of Damocles”he specifies.
“We will have to put things in context and hope that we understand that a 15-year-old child did not have much perspective. It is a tragedy that no one saw coming.”
Dylan Slama, lawyer for one of the minor defendantsat franceinfo
The challenge for the defense is to prove that the schoolchildren had not measured what was going to happen. The children’s judge will have to determine the capacity of discernment of each of the protagonists and their degree of involvement. Prosecuting minors in a terrorist case “is not something new, but it raises questions”, had himself underlined, in October 2020, the anti-terrorism prosecutor, Jean-François Ricard, in charge of the case. They all face up to two and a half years in prison.
*The first name has been changed