A minute of silence is planned in all middle and high schools in France to honor the memory of Samuel Paty this Monday, October 14. In addition to the tributes, the family of the murdered professor is waiting for legal sanctions to be imposed.
A minute of silence to remember and honor the memory of Samuel Paty. Four years after the assassination of the history and geography teacher by a radicalized Islamist in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines), a tribute is planned in all middle and high schools in France, this Monday, October 14. The teacher was threatened, then killed, for showing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to his students as part of a lesson on freedom of expression. The minute of silence must also honor the memory of Dominique Bernard, French teacher, murdered in Arras by a student also radicalized a year ago, three years apart almost to the day with the death of Samuel Paty.
If a ceremony paying tribute to Dominique Bernard was organized in Arras on Sunday October 13 in the presence of thousands of people and several members of the government, the Prime Minister must go to the Conflans-Sainte-Honorine college, where Samuel worked Paty, in the afternoon of Monday October 14. Michel Barnier will be accompanied by the Minister of National Education, Anne Genetet.
The tributes paid to Samuel Paty will continue this Saturday, October 19 with the presentation of the Samuel Paty prize from the Sorbonne which will reward class projects highlighting “democratic principles and values”. In a final tribute planned soon, the Conflans-Sainte-Honorine college mourned by the professor’s assassination should be renamed after the teacher.
Sanctions and justice “up to par”
So many tributes welcomed by the family, but those close to Samuel Paty also expect a lot from the legal response to the professor’s assassination. Especially since the second trial organized in this case to judge eight adults – the first trial focused on the case of six children tried for “slanderous denunciation” and “criminal association with a view to preparing aggravated violence” – must to be held from November 4 to December 20 at the Paris Special Assize Court. Two of the accused, friends of the attacker, are accused of “complicity in terrorist assassination” and the six other accused appear for “criminal terrorist association”.
The trials in the Samuel Paty affair “are important judicially, but also socially” believes Me Francis Szpiner, lawyer for the partner and son of the late professor. “This is a historic trial, because in my eyes the death of Samuel Paty is a rupture in the life of the Republic. We expect justice to be up to par, especially since we keep a very bad memory of the first trial which took place before the children’s court” adds the lawyer at the Figaro. “Sentences commensurate” even more awaited by the parents of Samuel Paty, very sensitive to what the death of their son represents for “the role of the teacher” and “the defense of secularism” according to their lawyer, Me Virginie Le Roy.
Members of Samuel Paty’s family also want the administration to answer for its actions and filed complaints in April 2022 for “failure to assist a person in danger” and “failure to prevent a crime” which gave rise to the opening of an investigation by the Paris prosecutor’s office. “Those close to Samuel Paty especially want answers, to know who did what or who did not do what” specifies Me Le Roy when the teacher knew he was threatened in the days preceding his death, but had not done so. object of the protective measures.