00:00The appeal trial of four people sentenced for the murder of a slain French teacher.
00:05Samuel Paty back in 2020 opens here in Paris today.
00:09The four are sentenced.
00:10In the first instance of prison terms ranging from 13 to 16 years for their roles.
00:15History and geography teacher was beheaded by a Chechen Islamist outside a school west of
00:20Paris and the assailant was later shot dead by police at the scene.
00:25I'm going to go across to Claire Pekalas standing by at the courthouse.
00:28Claire, tell us more about.
00:30This case, the lie, the online hate campaign and how it just all unfolded.
00:35It all started with a lying.
00:40A lie that a 13 year old girl told her father she lied to him saying.
00:45That she had been in Samuel Paty's class when he showed caricature of the prophet.
00:50Mohammed, she said that he had discriminated against her because she was Muslim when she
00:54had tried to stand.
00:55Now, the truth, the reality was that she had never been in class that day.
01:00At all.
01:01But her father, Raim Shinger, who is one of the men who was convicted in the first trial,
01:04he was given a third.
01:05A 13 year prison sentence.
01:06He took it on upon himself to go online, post videos of himself giving.
01:10the identity of the teacher Samuel Paty and also the school, the middle school, where he
01:15worked.
01:16He called him a teacher thug and was calling for him to be suspended.
01:20Now.
01:20That online hate campaign, there was weight given to it by another man who was also on
01:25trial.
01:25Today, he was given 15 years in the first trial.
01:29Abdelhakim Sifri.
01:30He's known already by French police as having been an Islamist activist.
01:34Now he.
01:35He added weight.
01:36He already had a following online.
01:38He was known and he added weight.
01:40This online hate campaign.
01:41And the judge ruled in the first trial that they bore responsibility.
01:45a significant responsibility for the state of mind of the killer.
01:49So the killer was an.
01:5018 year old Chechen, Abdelhakim Ansarov, who went to conflict.
01:55He came on the town to the west of France where Samuel Paty taught and he beheaded him
01:59in the.
02:00He came on the street not far away from the school on a Friday evening just as the school
02:04had broken up for the.
02:05October holidays and Samuel Paty, of course, leaving behind a son.
02:10A young son who is having to grow up in the knowledge of the brutal murder of his.
02:15father.
02:16So this is the appeals trial and out of the eight people who.
02:20were convicted in the first trial for our appealing today.
02:23So can you talk us through Claire who exactly.
02:25is on trial today.
02:26So we have these.
02:30The first two, the older generation, we have Abdelhakim Sifri, so the man.
02:35known as an Islamist activist by police.
02:37He was given 15 years.
02:38We have the father, Brian.
02:39She know of the.
02:40the 13 year old girl who.
02:41Who lied to him and that.
02:43That.
02:44That spark really lit the flame of this on.
02:45line hate campaign.
02:46They're both appealing and also to younger men appealing today as well.
02:50Now, these were friends of the killer, Abdulak Anzarov, who, of course, himself was killed
02:54by police shortly.
02:55after he beheaded Samuel Patsy, two of his friends who were convicted for having helped
02:59him get hold of the weapon.
03:00And one even drove him to Confluent, the town where Samuel Patsy taught.
03:04They were also convicted.
03:05They were given 16 year prison sentences.
03:07So they're appealing those.
03:08They say, they said in the.
03:10first trial that they had no knowledge of their friends intentions, but the judge said
03:14there was absolutely.
03:15No way they could not have known how dangerous Abdulak Anzarov was.
03:19And they are appealing.
03:20They're appealing this conviction, but we will wait to see this.
03:23We expect this trial to last five weeks.
03:25So a little bit shorter than the first trial, we expect to get a verdict at the end of February.
03:29Claire.
03:30Thank you very much for that.
03:31Claire Pachelard reporting there for us.
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