French Court Sentences to 16 Years in Prison for Beheading of French Teacher Samuel Paty

paris - A French court on Friday imposed heavy sentences on multiple men for their role in the jihadist beheading of teacher Samuel Paty in 2020, a murder that deeply shocked France.

A French court on Friday sentenced several men for their involvement in the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty in 2020. In October 2020, an 18-year-old Islamic extremist of Chechen origin, Abdoullakh Anzorov, killed the 47-year-old Paty after he showed cartoons of Prophet Mohammad in class. Anzorov was shot dead by the police.

Two friends of Anzorov, Naim Boudaoud (22) and Azim Epsirkhanov (23), received prison sentences of 16 years for complicity in the murder for providing Anzorov with weapons.

Two other suspects, involved in the hate campaign against Paty prior to his murder, were convicted for membership in a terrorist criminal organization.

Brahim Chnina, the 52-year-old Moroccan father of a schoolgirl who falsely claimed that Paty had sent Muslim students out of the classroom before showing the cartoons, was sentenced to 13 years in prison. His daughter, then 13 years old, was not present in the classroom at the time and previously apologized to the family of her former teacher during the trial.

Abdelhakim Sefrioui, a 65-year-old Franco-Moroccan Islamist activist, received a prison sentence of 15 years.