© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: {A photograph} taken on October 16, 2023 exhibits a commemorative plaque for slain instructor Samuel Paty (portrait) close to the Bois d’Aulne college in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, outdoors Paris. BERTRAND GUAY/Pool by way of REUTERS/File Photograph
PARIS (Reuters) -Six youngsters go on trial behind closed doorways on Monday in reference to the beheading of French historical past instructor Samuel Paty in 2020, a homicide that shocked the nation.
The instructor had proven his pupils caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in a category on freedom of expression, angering some Muslim dad and mom. Most Muslims keep away from depictions of prophets, contemplating them blasphemous.
A 13-year-old lady on the time allegedly advised her dad and mom that Paty had requested Muslim pupils to depart the room earlier than displaying the caricatures. She is dealing with false accusation prices after it was established that she was not within the class when it occurred.
Paty, 47, was killed outdoors his college in a Paris suburb by an 18-year-old assailant of Chechen origin, who was shot lifeless by police quickly after the assault.
The 5 different minors, aged between 14 and 15 on the time of the assault, will likely be charged with premeditated felony conspiracy, or ambush.
They’re suspected of getting identified Paty to the assassin or helped monitor his exit from the college.
All six minors have been referred to the youngsters’s court docket and will face 2-1/2 years in jail. They can’t be recognized on account of their age and entered court docket on Monday carrying hoodies to cover their faces.
“He is consumed with regret and is very fearful of the confrontation with Paty’s family,” Antoine Ory, lawyer for one of many accused, stated on Monday earlier than the listening to began.
Paty’s sister Mickaelle stated in a press release by means of lawyer Louis Cailliez that her brother would nonetheless be alive with no “fatal association of small cowardices, big lies”.
The hearings, on account of final till Dec. 8, will likely be held behind closed doorways.
Eight adults are additionally accused and can seem earlier than a particular felony court docket.
Final month, nearly two years to the day of Paty’s killing, a 20-year-old man fatally stabbed a instructor and gravely wounded two different folks in an assault at a college in northern France, triggering renewed fears of jihadist violence.
France has suffered a wave of assaults by Islamist militants in previous years, together with a gun rampage in 2015 within the places of work of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical journal that had revealed caricatures Paty confirmed in his class.