Six Students On Trial Over Teacher’s Horrifying Murder

(NationRise.com) – Six teenagers went on trial on November 27 in Paris for their alleged roles in the brutal beheading of a high school teacher who showed his students different caricatures of Islam’s prophet in his class. His murder led French authorities and even the government of France’s President Emmanuel Macron to reaffirm the nation’s rights of expression and secularism.

Geography and history teacher Samuel Paty was killed in October 2020 near his school in a northwest suburb of the French capital city by an 18-year-old boy of Chechen origin. Police officers shot and killed the attacker and eventually found he was radicalized while in France.

According to French law regarding minors, every single hearing at the Paris main juvenile court will be held behind closed doors. The defendants arrived with their faces hidden behind hoods and masks, accompanied by their families. The media isn’t allowed to disclose their identities.

Among the teenagers going on trial, a girl who was 13 years old at the time of the attack was accused of making false allegations against Paty. Authorities noted she wrongly said he asked every Muslim student to leave the classroom before showing the cartoons. She eventually told investigators she lied and didn’t even attend the classroom the day he showed the cartoons.

The five other teenagers were students of Paty when they were 14 and 15 years old. They are currently facing charges of criminal conspiracy with the goal of plotting aggravated violence. The teenagers were accused of having waited for the teacher for hours until he left the academic institution, and of having identified him to the killer in exchange for the promise of a $400 payment. French authorities also charged a radical Muslim who disseminated violent messages on social media, naming Paty.

The investigation revealed that the killer knew the teacher’s name and the address of the high school, but didn’t know how to identify him. The six teenagers are currently facing two years behind bars. The trial is officially scheduled to end on December 8.