France's anti-terrorism court convicted eight individuals in connection with the brutal beheading of teacher Samuel Paty, who was killed outside his school near Paris in 2020. The court’s decision follows a years-long investigation into the crime that deeply impacted both the education system and French society as a whole.

Samuel Paty, 47, was beheaded by an Islamic extremist outside his school on October 16, 2020, after showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a class on free expression. The assailant, an 18-year-old Russian of Chechen origin, was killed by police. Eight individuals were tried in Paris on terrorism charges for either assisting the attacker or organising an online hate campaign prior to the murder.

The attacker who killed Samuel Paty was motivated by false claims online that Paty had ordered Muslim students to leave class before showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. In reality, Paty was teaching a lesson on free speech and had told students to look away if they found the images offensive. The trial focused on individuals who supported the attacker, either morally or materially. Over seven weeks, the court learned how a lie from a 13-year-old girl fueled the events, amplified by social media.

Among those sentenced on Friday were Brahim Chnina, the schoolgirl's father, and two of the killer's friends, who were with him when he bought weapons. Four others were also found guilty of sharing messages with the attacker on a radical chatline.

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Story Behind Samuel Paty’s Murder

The attack on Samuel Paty occurred amid protests in Muslim countries and calls for violence against France and Charlie Hebdo, which had republished controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. These images, seen as sacrilegious by many Muslims, sparked outrage, but Paty’s murder reinforced France's commitment to freedom of expression and secularism. The trial focused on Brahim Chnina, the Muslim father of a student who falsely claimed that Paty had excluded her from class before showing the cartoons on October 5, 2020.

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Samuel Paty was teaching a lesson on freedom of expression, discussing the controversial caricatures while allowing students to leave if they were offended. An online campaign against him grew, and 11 days later, Anzorov attacked Paty with a knife as he walked home, posting the teacher's severed head on social media.