Eight people on trial in France over beheading of teacher

The father of a French pupil whose account of the use of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in a class on free speech led to the teacher's brutal murder has gone on trial accused of association with a terrorist network.

Days after Samuel Paty, 47, showed his pupils the caricatures in 2020, an 18-year-old assailant of Chechen origin stabbed him repeatedly and beheaded him outside his school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine near Paris.

That happened after a pupil's father, Brahim Chnina, published a series of videos on social media, wrongly accusing Mr Paty of disciplining his daughter for complaining about the class, giving Mr Paty's name and identifying the school.

Prosecutors accuse Mr Chnina of collaborating with Abdelhakim Sefrioui, who founded a hardline Islamist organisation, to incite hatred towards the teacher.

Many Muslims consider any depiction of the Prophet Mohammad blasphemous.

"They put a target on the teacher's back," Thibault de Montbrial, a lawyer for Mr Paty's sister Mickaelle Paty, told reporters.

"Their public allegations... the videos they made attacking this teacher... all this spiral led directly to the atrocious decapitation of Samuel Paty.

"It will be interesting to see, how after having set up a whole chain of events from the letter A to the letter Y they will say that they are not responsible for the letter Z."

Both men are charged with association with a terrorist organisation.

Mr Chnina's lawyer declined to comment ahead of the start of the trial.

Mr Sefrioui's lawyer, Ouadie Elhamamouchi, has said there is no proof of contact between Mr Sefrioui and the Chechen killer, who was shot dead by police.

Mr Elhamamouchi said that Mr Sefrioui would show the court "that he has absolutely no connection whatsoever with this heinous attack, which he has condemned from day one".

Among the six others on trial in Paris alongside Mr Chnina and Mr Sefrioui are two associates of Mr Paty's killer, Abdullakh Anzorov.

Prosecutors allege they knew of Mr Anzorov's plans to kill Mr Paty and helped him buy weapons.

Both are charged with complicity in a terrorist killing, and French media say they have both denied wrongdoing.

Last year, a court found Mr Chnina's daughter and five other adolescents guilty of charges related to taking part in a pre-meditated criminal conspiracy and helping to prepare an ambush.

Mr Chnina's daughter was actually not in Mr Paty's class when the caricatures were shown.

The court found her guilty of making false accusations and slanderous comments.

French media said the13-year-old made the allegations against Mr Paty when her parents asked her why she had been suspended from school for two days.

The latest trial is due to run until December.

Teachers from Mr Paty's school will follow the trial closely, said Antoine Casubolo Ferro, a lawyer for 14 of his colleagues.

"They expect the (French) republic, justice, to say: stop, don't mess with teachers ... don't mess with freedom of expression," Mr Casubolo Ferro told reporters.