Investigations completed. Investigating judge Richard Foltzer told the parties this Thursday, October 8. Less than two years after the assassination of Samuel Paty, on October 16, 2020. Fourteen people have been indicted in this case, the vast majority for “terrorist criminal associations” or “complicity in terrorist assassination”: they form four circles having, each in their own way, participated in the spiral of hatred fatal to the history-geography teacher. The investigation recounts eleven unbreathable days between the fleeting dissemination of the caricatures of Charlie Hebdoon October 5 during a civic and moral education class given to the fourth 5 class of the Bois d’Aulne college in Conflans-Saint-Honorine (Yvelines), at 10:30 a.m. – then the next day at 12:50 p.m. to the fourth 4, class of Z. Chnina -, and the attack committed by Abdoullakh Anzorov on Friday October 16 shortly after 4:30 p.m.
During this lapse of time, the one who was a little quickly presented as a “lone wolf” quenches his thirst for violence from many sources. Brahim Chnina, Z.’s father, absent the day of class, struggles to discredit the teacher, joined by the preacher Abdelhakim Sefrioui. They each in turn broadcast an accusatory video unfolding the false version of Z., according to which Samuel Paty would have asked Muslim students to leave the room, respectively on Thursday October 8 and Sunday October 11. On social networks, a squad of Islamist activists are working to add fuel to the fire. In Evreux (Eure), where the 18-year-old Chechen refugee resides, a small group lends him assistance, until the day of the murder. That afternoon, five middle school students from Bois d’Aulne took part in appointing the teacher when he left school. Anzorov beheads him in stride.
In Samuel Paty’s bag, we will find a hammer, the sign that the teacher did not consider himself safe. The report of the General Inspectorate of National Education (Igesr), released in December 2020, describes a rise in tension that is both gradual and rapid, in which the anger of parents of students, court rumors are intertwined. recess on the so-called “racism” of the teacher, the distancing of certain colleagues from Bois d’Aulne and the omnipresence of the feeling of danger that affects the staff. For these reasons, the family of Samuel Paty filed a complaint for “non-assistance to person in danger” against the State, on April 6.
In this document, we learn that on October 9, the day after Brahim Chnina’s video, a territorial intelligence commander from Yvelines sent the security adviser of the Versailles Academy a link to a Twitter message signed by the account “Cicat’s “, held by Priscilla M. “Here are some elements related to the file […] I will call you back as soon as possible”, writes the intelligence agent. This 34-year-old Gardoise, followed by the DGSI from 2017 and religiously married to Sami Gharouz, sentenced to fourteen years in prison for a planned attack in Marseille, is now considered by investigators to be the person who drew Abdullakh Anzorov’s attention to the case of Samuel Paty. Between October 9 and October 13, they sent each other 45 messages. This exchange between territorial intelligence and the rectorate, obtained from the Versailles Academy by the Paty family’s lawyer, Me Virginie Le Roy, could prove embarrassing for public officials. It shows that the involvement of networks close to Islamist radicalism was identified very early on On April 7, the Minister Gérald Darmanin said he understood the complaint, while affirming that according to him, “the State will not have to be ashamed of what it has done”.
The parties now have one month to submit their observations. Due to the questioning of several minors, uncertainty remains about the jurisdiction which will host the trial, probably during 2023. The magistrates could choose to convene two assize trials, one for adults, the other for minors. They can also decide to bring all the parties together before the assize court for minors. Which would mean a trial entirely behind closed doors. Back to the charges against the main indicted.
Brahim Chnina, the slanderer
The father of Z. Chnina, herself prosecuted for “slanderous denunciation”, broadcasts from October 7 to her WhatsApp contacts then on Facebook the name and college of Samuel Paty. On October 9, he had a first conversation of one minute and twenty-one seconds on the telephone with Abdoullakh Anzorov. They also exchange text messages. On October 10 and then October 13, they wrote to each other again on WhatsApp. “OK we’ll see” Anzorov would have replied when Chnina told him that no sanction had been taken against Samuel Paty, according to the account given by Abouyezid Anzorov, the killer’s father, in a video posted on Facebook in July 2021 Chnina has always denied knowing about the young man’s terrorist project. His video had been viewed over 13,000 times before the murder.
In a psychological expertise carried out on May 31, 2021 and March 10, 2022, the expert-psychologist describes Brahim Chnina as “a self-centered, proud, evasive, somewhat suspicious person, sometimes showing himself to be a victim, sometimes responsible, but also sometimes cynical”. On this occasion, the father of the family “thus denies the facts, while recognizing them, with as much seriousness as casually”. His lawyers asked for a second opinion, which “does not modify” the “first conclusions”. He has made no request for release for trial and remains indicted for “terrorist criminal association” and “complicity in terrorist assassination”.
Abdelhakim Sefrioui, the preacher
Can one be an Islamist activist author of a campaign to destabilize a teacher without being complicit in his assassination? It is this delicate and very legal question that the magistrates have been confronted with since the start of the investigation. There is no evidence to show that the video of Abdelhakim Sefrioui, an anti-Zionist activist, on file S since 2014, was seen by Abdoullakh Anzorov. In this film, the Franco-Moroccan activist does not pronounce the name of the professor, but on the other hand quotes the college.
Me Elise Arfi, lawyer for the agitator along with Mes Ouadie Elhamamouchi and Sefen Guez Guez, concludes that “no causal link between the video of Abdelhakim Sefrioui and the assassination could be established” and that the qualification “incitement to hatred”, punishable by one year in prison, would be more appropriate than “complicity in terrorist assassination”, punishable by life imprisonment. Since 1987, the Court of Cassation has held that “second degree complicity” is not punishable, that is to say that becoming an accomplice in the actions of a first person does not entail any liability in the links what can this person maintain with a third thief. Here, the assistance provided by Sefrioui to Chnina, whom he accompanied to the college of Bois d’Aulne – the two men were also in contact 53 times in eight days – would not carry any responsibility in the links maintained between Chnina and Anzorov.
Such was not the analysis of the magistrates who always refused the cancellation of the indictment of the activist. The advice of the agitator also denounces a certain “animosity” of the police against him. In a request for release dated July 15, 2022, they noted that during a meeting between Abelhakim Sefrioui and his wife, the investigators listened to, transcribed and entered into the file exchanges of a sexual nature between the activist and his wife. woman, all in a “will to abasement and degradation”.
Priscilla M., the influencer
His pseudonym “Cicat’s” does not refer to cats: it is a contraction of “sweet scar”, one of his previous aliases on Twitter. The investigators are convinced that it was through this 30-year-old that Abdoullakh Anzorov learned of the “Paty affair”, in particular because the oldest mention of the teacher found in the killer’s communications consists of a private message sent to Priscilla M. on Twitter. During their discussions, the young woman appears extremely well informed about what is happening at the Bois d’Aulne college. On October 13, she warns the future murderer that Samuel Paty will not be punished. “No, no penalties,” she wrote. “Al hamdulillah that they fight us otherwise I would have worried”, also proclaims Priscilla M. that same day with Anzorov.
Native of Palaiseau (Essonne), converted to Islam at “14 or 15 years old”, a religion discovered “because [son] father had a Koran at home”, as she told investigators during her police custody, on June 23, 2021, Priscilla M. “follows the opinions of the Hanbalite school”, an ultra-rigorous current of Islam which comes from Salafism or Saudi Wahhabism. Close to radicalized networks, this RSA recipient and mother of two children also denies having sensed the terrorist intention of the Chechen. She has been indicted for “terrorist criminal association” and “complicity in terrorist assassination”, but left free.
Faruq Shami, the sponsor?
Could the sponsor of the attack be in Syria? On September 13, 2020, a man named Faruq Shami posted a live video on Instagram, containing this message in Russian: “I, Faruk Shami from Chaula blessed lands, I tell you. You have a month’s deadline. If nothing does not happen with them, Charlie Hebdoand if no one from the people of Kadyrov there shouts ‘Ahmat-Sila’ [un chant guerrier et religieux tchétchène, NDLR], you will be among the last of the cretins. Remember these words.” The investigators believe that “there is talk in this video of targeting France following the publication of the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad by the newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Faruk Shami would call on French Muslims to carry out attacks in retaliation”.
Faruq Shami, whose real name is Farrukh Fayzymatov, a Tajik born in 1996, is designated by the United States as the recruiter and financier of the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, rival of Al-Qaeda in Syria. Ismaël G., a friend of Abdoullakh Anzorov, believes that he “maybe” saw this video. In the weeks leading up to the attack, Anzorov and the account attributed to Fayzymatov exchanged 13 times on Instagram. After beheading Samuel Paty, Anzorov sends the photograph to this account, then a written claim message, and finally, at 5:38 p.m., an audio claim in Russian. He will be shot a few moments later. The jihadist has not been the subject of any arrest warrant in this case.
Naïm B., the friend-accomplice
Naïm B. and Azim E. attend the same mosque as Abdoullakh Anzorov in Canteleu, near Evreux. In the days preceding the attack, Anzorov tried to associate them with his criminal project, of which they said they were unaware of everything – they were nonetheless indicted for “complicity in terrorist assassination”. The two men accompany the apprentice terrorist – who does not have a license – to Rouen, where he buys the knife which will be used for the decapitation, then, the next day, two Airsoft guns, which shoot lead bullets. Naïm B., who claims not to always understand the conversations in Chechen between his two friends, escorts Anzorov to the surroundings of the Bois d’Aulne college in Conflans, on the day of the events.
The murderer pretended to work on a construction site, Naïm B. told the investigators. Then, he goes to lunch with his girlfriend, an interview planned and confirmed by the study of his communications, which allows him today to avoid suspicions of more active participation in the assassination. Because an element intrigued the investigators for a time: the first Airsoft was found on Anzorov, and the second at the home of Naïm B.