Six French teenagers have gone on trial in connection with a murder in a Paris suburb that horrified the country three years ago. History and geography teacher Samuel Paty, who had shown students caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed during a class on free speech, was beheaded near a secondary school by an 18-year-old Chechen refugee who was shot dead by police. The teens, who were 13 to 15 years old at the time of the Oct. 16, 2020, murder, could each get 2.5 years in prison if they are convicted of playing roles in the killing, the BBC reports. Eight adults charged in connection with the attack will go on trial next year.
The youngest defendant, a girl who was 13 at the time of the attack, has been charged with making false allegations. Prosecutors say the girl, who had been suspended for school for unrelated reasons, claimed to her parents that she was being punished for complaining about the caricature, the New York Times reports. She also falsely claimed that Paty separated Muslim from non-Muslim students. Prosecutors say her father, Brahim Chnina, spread the claims on social media and was in touch with the killer, Abdoullakh Anzorov, who lived around 50 miles away.
The five other teens on trial, who were 14 or 15 when Paty was killed, are charged with criminal conspiracy with intent to cause violence, AFP reports. Prosecutors say that in exchange for money, they kept watch for Paty outside the school and identified him to Anzorov. The teenagers told police they thought the teacher would be "humiliated" or "roughed up" but they didn't expect him to be murdered. Last month, another teacher was killed in a suspected terrorist attack in northern France. (More France stories.)
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