@ch_capuanoA former French faculty principal has revealed the stunning sequence of occasions that led to the beheading of Samuel Paty by a Chechen refugee.
Audrey F instructed the Paris court docket how she tried to cease an out-of-control struggle that began with a 13-year-old schoolgirl who lied to her mother and father.
What began with Samuel Paty giving a lecture on freedom of expression in October 2020 escalated when the woman’s father, who wasn’t even at school, confirmed up on the principal’s workplace together with a neighborhood Islamist activist.
“I could not shield him,” Audrey F mentioned of her late colleague, a well-regarded historical past and geography instructor within the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.
“It’s an enormous waste.”
The dispute ended tragically with the homicide of Paty exterior the varsity by 18-year-old Abdoullakh Anzorov, who was shot lifeless by police on the scene.
The woman, recognized in court docket by the initials Z, had simply been suspended from faculty for 2 days for repeated absences and rudeness.
That wasn’t what he instructed his mother and father.
The woman mentioned she confronted Paty in a category she did not attend, falsely claiming she instructed Muslim college students to depart the room whereas exhibiting “bare” pictures of the Prophet Muhammad.
Although one other woman’s mom had known as the varsity in tears, Audrey F mentioned she known as her again, Samuel Paty was additionally on the decision, and she or he mentioned the mom appeared reassured.
In actuality, the category had mentioned three cartoons revealed by a French satirical journal, and Paty had mentioned that anybody who felt offended should not keep.
Any depiction of the Prophet Muhammad is taken into account extremely offensive by Muslims. But there was no try to focus on or exclude Muslim college students.
The following morning, Audrey F was instructed that the excluded pupil’s father, Brahim Chnina, was exterior the varsity with one other man, Abdelhakim Sefrioui, who falsely claimed to be performing on behalf of the French imams.
The couple had been calling for motion towards Paty, who they condemned as a “thug” and needed eliminated.
Audrey F mentioned that whereas she had tried to focus the dialog on the woman’s exclusion from faculty, Abdelhakim Sefrioui had taken the lead, refusing to permit freedom of expression for use by a “thug”.
The homicide of Samuel Paty, 47, shocked France and got here 5 years after the militant Islamic gunmen killed 12 people at Charlie Hebdo’s Paris offices who revealed the unique cartoons.
Abdelhakim Sefrioui and Brahim Chnina are accused of figuring out Samuel Paty as a “blasphemer” in on-line movies and of involvement in a “legal terrorism” group and complicity in “terrorist homicide”.
BENOIT PEYRUCQ/AFPThey are amongst eight folks on trial on the Paris court docket who deny all prices towards them, whereas not denying their involvement within the case.
The different six embody a pair accused of aiding the teenage killer and others accused of inciting him on social media.
Audrey F, who left France to show at a world faculty in China, instructed the court docket she had a sense the subsequent day that the state of affairs had turn into an issue and that “one thing wasn’t proper within the faculty”.
Two movies appeared on social media, one from Brahim Chnina during which his daughter repeated his lies concerning the class, one other later from Abdelhakim Sefrioui, who named each Samuel Paty and the varsity.
“By now I used to be very fearful, not particularly about Mr Paty however concerning the faculty,” she instructed the court docket.
On the recommendation of a superior, she went with Samuel Paty to the police, the place she filed a criticism, and contacted the native authority.
The geography instructor was requested to remain residence till the varsity holidays, which had been just some days away. He refused and Audrey F did not insist.
Threatening emails had been despatched to the varsity and there have been additionally nameless cellphone calls. A police automotive was parked exterior the varsity for a number of days.
On the final day of half time period, at 4.45pm on Friday 16 October, Samuel Paty was stabbed and beheaded by the 18-year-old Chechen refugee exterior the varsity.
Brahim Chnina’s daughter has already been convicted of false and defamatory prices, whereas 5 different youngsters had been discovered responsible of participating in a bunch that ready aggravated violence.
When requested in court docket what Abdelhakim Sefrioui and Brahim Chnina might have achieved to calm the state of affairs, Audrey F replied that nothing would have occurred if that they had not posted movies on-line.
Regretting not having been capable of shield his colleague, the previous principal mentioned: “I inform myself that if there may be justice, possibly I can transfer ahead.”
