Eight sentenced in France in connection with murder of teacher Samuel Paty
Al Jazeera
Teacher was stabbed and beheaded outside his school in Paris in 2020 after an online hate campaign.
A French court has jailed eight people for their role in the murder of a teacher who had shown caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad during a class debate on freedom of expression.
The Paris Special Assize Court handed down prison terms ranging from one to 16 years to the defendants, who were convicted of organising a hate campaign that culminated in the beheading of 47-year-old Samuel Paty outside his school in Paris in 2020 by an 18-year-old Russian of Chechen origin, who was shot dead by police at the scene.
The 540-seat courtroom was packed on Friday for the verdict, which saw a seven-judge panel meeting or going above most of the terms requested by prosecutors, citing “the exceptional gravity of the facts”.
Naim Boudaoud, 22, and Azim Epsirkhanov, 23, were convicted of complicity in murder and sentenced to 16 years in prison each. Boudaoud was accused of driving attacker Abdoullakh Anzorov to the school while Epsirkhanov helped him procure weapons.
Abdelhakim Sefrioui, a 65-year-old Muslim preacher, was given 15 years for organising a hate campaign online against Paty and denouncing Paty in a video as a “thug”. His lawyer said he would appeal the decision, according to French media.
