Paris, Jan 26, (dpa/GNA) – The appeal trial of four people, convicted in connection with the beheading of French schoolteacher, Samuel Paty, more than five years ago, opened at a Paris court on Monday.
On October 16, 2020, the 47-year-old history teacher was killed and decapitated by an 18-year-old on his way home from school in a Paris suburb.
Police shot and killed the perpetrator, who had Russian-Chechen roots, a few minutes later.
The crime, which was categorized as an Islamist-motivated act of terrorism, caused international horror.
Prior to the attack, there had been incitement against the teacher on the internet because he had shown in class, the controversial cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, published the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo during a lesson on freedom of expression.
Investigators say the incitement helped spur the attacker to carry out the killing.
The accused in the appeal trial are two friends of the perpetrator, now aged 24 and 25, who allegedly accompanied him to buy weapons and drove him to the scene of the crime.
They were sentenced to 16 years in prison in a first trial for involvement in a terrorist attack. Both have said they were unaware of the attacker’s true intentions.
Also on trial are the 54-year-old father of a schoolgirl, who circulated false accusations against Paty and a 66-year-old Islamist preacher.
The two men are said to have fuelled the incitement against the teacher with videos on social networks. They were sentenced to 13 and 15 years in prison respectively.
In a separate trial about two years ago, six students were convicted for their role in the events leading up to the killing. The court found they helped the attacker identify Paty immediately before the crime.
GNA