Muslim schoolgirl admits lying that her teacher was Islamophobic years after he was decap!tated by a jihadist in France
The Muslim schoolgirl who accused her teacher of Islamophobia as a result of which he was decap!tated in the street in France by a jihadist has admitted she lied.
History and geography teacher, Samuel Paty was murdered on October 16, 2020, by Abdoullakh Anzorov, an 18-year-old Islamist radical of Chechen origin.
Anzorov tracked down 47-year-old Paty and brutally hacked his head off after seeing pictures and videos of him circulated on social media as part of a campaign of harassment.
The schoolgirl in question had claimed Paty ordered Muslim students to leave his classroom while he showed the rest of the class caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad by satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
But in court on Wednesday, she revealed that she had not even been present in the class and made up the lie, fearing repercussions from her parents after she was suspended for two days for bad behaviour.
The schoolgirl’s father, Brahim Chnina, is accused of launching the online harassment campaign against Paty, while other teen students were tried last year after they identified him as the attacker in exchange for a few hundred euros.
Anzorov, who had requested asylum in France was k!lled by police shortly after the murder near the school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine west of Paris.
The student, who was 13 at the time of the murder and whose identity remains protected due to her age, reportedly told Paty’s family at a special court hearing today: ‘I apologise for my lie that brought us all back here.’
He had shown the Charlie Hebdo caricatures to students as part of an ethics class in which his pupils were discussing the fallout of the 2015 terror attack on newspaper offices in which 12 people were murdered by extremists. But he had not ordered any students to leave the room, instead telling them what he was going to do as part of the ethics lesson before inviting them to turn away if they thought they would be offended by the caricatures.
Seven men and one woman are appearing at the Special Assize Court in Paris amid the trial over his murder, which is set to last until December 20.
Chnina is one of them, facing charges of association with a terrorist organisation for his alleged involvement in the online campaign targeting Paty.
Six students, including Chnina’s daughter, were tried last year for their role in Paty’s death.
The schoolgirl received an 18-month suspended sentence for the slanderous allegations she made against Paty that ultimately proved the catalyst for his murder.
Her five co-defendants, all of whom were aged 14 or 15 at the time of the murder, faced charges of criminal conspiracy with the aim of preparing aggravated violence.
Four were handed suspended sentences but one received a six-month term with an electronic tag after being identified as the person who pointed Paty out to Anzorov.
Also on trial at the court in Paris is Abdelhakim Sefrioui, a 65-year-old Franco-Moroccan Islamist activist.
He and Chnina spread the teenager’s lies on social networks with the aim, according to the prosecution, of ‘designating a target’, ‘provoking a feeling of hatred’ and ‘thus preparing several crimes’.
