A French court on Friday (Dec 8) convicted six teenagers for their involvement in the beheading of a teacher by an Islamic extremist that sent shock waves across the world.
The incident took place in 2020, when deceased history teacher, Samuel Paty was murdered outside the school after he showed caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad to his pupils in the class on freedom of expression from the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Paty was stabbed and then beheaded near the secondary school in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine on Oct 16, 2020.
The 18-year-old assailant, Chechen refugee Abdoullakh Anzorov, was shot dead on the spot by police.
The jail sentences, as per a youth court judgement read at a public hearing, range from 14 months to two years, however, all are either suspended or commuted and no defendant will serve prison time.
Defendants aged between 13-15
The trial was held behind closed doors taking into consideration the age of the defendants at the time of the events, which ranged from 13 to 15 years.
Out of six, five on trial, who were aged between 14 to 15 years at the time of Paty’s murder, were being tried for criminal conspiracy with intent to cause violence.
They were accused of being involved in a premeditated criminal conspiracy in exchange for money.
Four of them received suspended sentences of between 14 and 18 months.
The fifth was sentenced to two-year-imprisonment, however, 18 months of that was suspended and the teenager was set to be released with an electronic tag for the remaining six months.
The sixth out of the lot was a girl, who was 13 at the time of the incident. She was accused of making false allegations about the deceased victim stating that he had asked Muslim students to identify themselves and leave the classroom before he showed the cartoons, even though she wasn’t present in the class at that time.
She was handed an 18-month suspended sentence and put on probation measures for two years.
(With inputs from agencies)
