Six Teens Convicted Over Teacher’s Beheading in Case That Shocked France
Six teenagers have been convicted with connection in the beheading of their teacher Samuel Paty, who was killed in 2020 after showing his class caricatures of the prophet Muhammad to talk about freedom of expression. One girl, who was 13 at the time, was convicted of making false accusations and given an 18-month suspended prison sentence. She had wrongly said that Paty, her 47-year-old history teacher, asked Muslim students to identify themselves and leave the classroom before he showed the caricatures of Muhammad. She later confessed she wasn’t in the class that day. The five other teens, who had been aged between 14 and 15, were found guilty of criminal conspiracy with intent to cause violence. They helped point out Paty to Abdoullakh Anzorov, a radicalized 18-year-old who who arrived in France aged six with his Chechen parents, and stabbed and then decapitated the teacher. Four of the teens were given suspended sentences but one, who had initially shown Anzorov who Paty was, received a six-month prison sentence which may be served electronic surveillance.
