Four more pupils have been indicted in the murder of Samuel Paty, with three of the four accused of complicity and helping to identify the teacher to his killer.
The four arrested are part of the total of 14 pupils detained since the killing of Mr Paty last month, who was beheaded in the street by a Chechen refugee. The 18-year-old terrorist, Abdulakh Anzorov, murdered the history and geography teacher in revenge for showing cartoons of the Islamic prophet Mohammed, published by Charlie Hebdo, to his class during a lesson on freedom of expression.
Three of the recently arrested pupils, aged between 13 and 14, are facing charges of complicity with the murder and are alleged to have helped Anzorov identify Paty before the murder, a judicial source told AFP.
The fourth is the daughter of Brahim Chnina, the man who launched an internet campaign against Paty after he found out he had shown the cartoon to his daughter’s class. The teen was accused of “slanderous denunciation” against her teacher, after claiming details of the lesson where the cartoons were shown despite not being present at the time.
Both Chnina and his daughter had accused Paty of discrimination in the days before the terror attack, claiming he had told Muslims to leave the room before showing the cartoons. In contrast, other witnesses had said that the teacher had offered any student to leave beforehand if they wanted to do so.
Chnina, as well as Islamist activist Abdelhakim Sefrioui, who supported the father’s anti-Paty campaign, have already been charged with complicity in the murder. Sefrioui is listened on France’s anti-terror S-File list, considered a risk to national security. The father is said to have been in direct contact with Anzorov via WhatsApp.
Following the murder, which took place on October 16th, police arrested seven pupils on October 22nd, two of whom were indicted on charges of complicity in murder connected to terrorist activity. Three more were arrested on November 6th.
The two pupils indicted with complicity, aged 14 and 15, were released under judicial supervision last week after being presented to an anti-terrorism judge. One of the teens admitted he had pointed out Paty to the attacker.
Earlier reports had claimed that 18-year-old Anzorov had paid pupils at Paty’s school cash to identify him on the morning of the terrorist attack. The young terrorist, who was shot dead by police after the attack, is said to have paid out several hundred euros to identify his target.
In the weeks after the killing, and the following terrorist attack at church in Nice that saw three killed by a radical Islamic terrorist, French President Emmanuel Macron has worked to crack down on Islamist associations and groups.
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