Day of reckoning for French teenagers accused of helping Islamic extremist decapitate teacher Samuel Paty because he showed a cartoon of Muhammad in the classroom: Court is due to deliver verdict today

• History and geography teacher Paty was violently stabbed to death in Oct 2020
• Attacker was shot dead by police but teens are accused of helping him find Paty

Six teenagers accused of involvement in the killing of Samuel Paty will today receive their verdict from a French juvenile court.

Paty, a history and geography teacher, was violently stabbed to death and then decapitated near his school in a Paris suburb by 18-year-old Chechen refugee Abdoullakh Anzorov on October 16, 2020.

The attack came after the teacher showed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published by the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo to his class, and his name was circulated on social media. 

Anzorov was shot dead by police but six teens, all of whom were students at Paty’s school, are alleged to have aided the teacher’s murderer.

Five of the defendants, who were 14 or 15 at the time of the killing, are accused of staking Paty out until he left school that day and identifying him for the attacker in exchange for a few hundred euros. 

All five face charges of criminal conspiracy with the aim of preparing aggravated violence, and could receive sentences of two-and-a-half years if found guilty.

Pedestrians pass by a poster depicting French teacher Samuel Paty on November 3, 2020, following the decapitation of the teacher on October 16

History and geography teacher Samuel Paty, 47, was decapitated outside a school near Paris

This file photo taken on October 18, 2020, shows a person holding a placard reading “I am Samuel” as people gather on the Place de la Republique in Paris on October 18, 2020, in homage to history teacher

Paty was violently stabbed to death and then decapitated by 18-year-old Chechen refugee Abdoullakh Anzorov on October 16, 2020

The sixth defendant, who was 13 at the time, is accused of wrongly claiming that Paty had asked Muslim students to raise their hands and leave the classroom before he showed the class the prophet cartoons. 

She was not in the classroom that day, and later told investigators she had lied. She is facing a charge of making false allegations after her father shared the lie in an online video that called for mobilisation against the teacher. 

He and a radical Islamic activist who helped disseminate virulent messages against Paty that are thought to have encouraged Anzorov to carry out his heinous attack are among eight defendants who will face a separate trial for adults suspected of involvement in the killing, expected late next year.

In sometimes tearful testimony, the teenagers on trial said they had no idea the teacher would be killed, according to French media reports.

The trial has been held behind closed doors, and the media are not allowed to disclose the defendants’ identities according to French law regarding minors.

Paty is seen in this undated image

FILE: Hundreds of people gather on Republique square during a demonstration Sunday Oct. 18, 2020 in Paris in support of freedom of speech and to pay tribute to a French history teacher who was beheaded near Paris

Flowers and signs reading “I am Samuel Paty’ are displayed at a makeshift memorial during a march (marche blanche) in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, northwest of Paris, in tribute to French teacher Samuel Paty

The proceedings come weeks after a teacher was fatally stabbed and three other people injured in northern France in October in a school attack by a former student suspected of Islamic radicalisation. 

That killing occurred in a context of global tensions over the Israel-Hamas war and led French authorities to deploy 7,000 additional soldiers across the country to bolster security and vigilance.

Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab, 26, started his bloody rampage in Paris last Saturday night with a kitchen knife and a hammer.  

He kept screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’ – Arabic for ‘God is the greatest’ – and professing his support for ISIS as he was arrested for targeting a German-Filipino tourist named only as Collin, a British national identified only as Melvyn, 66, and a 60-year-old French man called Thierry. 

Rajabpour-Miyandoab, who had severe psychiatric problems and who was meant to be under surveillance by France’s intelligence services, set upon Collin in front of his wife and another female friend.

Both Collin and his partner were nurses, and had worked in a retirement home in Germany since January, said an investigating source.

Rajabpour-Miyandoab, left, who had severe psychiatric problems and who was meant to be under surveillance by France ‘s intelligence services, set upon Collin, right, in front of his wife

Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ as he was taken in by Paris police, who immobilised him with a stun gun

‘The murder victim was devoted to caring for other people,’ he added. ‘During his holiday in Paris he had visited the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and Disneyland.’

Following the attack on Collin, he went after Melvyn, who was on holiday in Paris at the time of the attack. 

The British father was stabbed in the eye in the attack, and on Monday was recovering from the wound in hospital in central Paris.

The terrorist also attacked 60-year-old Thierry, who had been out walking with his wife and child, hitting him with a hammer. He too was still in hospital on Monday.

Following a chase, and the intervention of a taxi driver, Rajabpour-Miyandoab was finally disabled by police using tasers.

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