A French court on Friday sentenced six teenagers in connection with the 2020 beheading of history teacher Samuel Paty, whose murder shocked the country. Finally, the Paris Children’s Court has decreed six months in prison for two of the six minors accused of their involvement in the murder of the high school teacher.
The other four were given sentences of 14 months or more in prison, although they were exempt from serving. The two firm six-month sentences – for the teenager who invented the slander that led to the murder and for the young man who pointed out Paty to the terrorist – can be replaced by an electronic bracelet.
The teacher had shown his students caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in a class on freedom of expression, angering some Muslim parents. Most Muslims avoid depictions of prophets, considering them blasphemous.
Among the six defendants was a teenage girl who had allegedly told her parents that Paty had asked the Muslim students to leave the room before showing the cartoons. The court found her guilty of making false accusations and slanderous comments, as it was established that she was not in the class at the time.