In France, the former principal of the college testified at the trial of the assassination of Samuel Paty on Tuesday November 12 and recounted, before the special assize court of Paris, in detail, the spiral of facts which led to the killing of the history geography professor on October 16, 2020.
3 mins
The former principal’s account is very precise because she took care to write down everything. The hearing will last six hours.
On October 7, nine days before the beheading of Samuel Paty, the principal decided to sanction a schoolgirl with two days of exclusion for incivility and repeated absences. A sanction which has no relation to the course given by Samuel Paty the day before.
A lie with dramatic consequences
This young schoolgirl was not present at the class. But the young girl lies and tells her parents that she stood up to her teacher who asked the Muslim students to leave the class before showing caricatures of the naked prophet published in France by Charlie Hebdo.
The next day, the schoolgirl’s father goes to the school to meet the principal. He is not alone. To calm the situation, she agrees to receive them in her office. The discussion turns to blasphemy and the father demands that the teacher be fired. The second man, Abdelhakim Sefrioui, an Islamist activist, threatens to return with Muslims to demonstrate in front of the establishment. He protests against an offense against the sacred and calls for the ouster of Samuel Paty in the name of an attack on the psychological integrity of the students.
A fiery controversy on social networks
The same evening, the father of the schoolgirl Brahim Chnina published a first video about the controversy, imitated two days later by Abdelhakim Sefrioui. In the videos, the name of Samuel Paty is clearly indicated. The situation spirals out of control as soon as the videos are broadcast. The college immediately received threatening emails and calls. The principal talks with Samuel Paty, his students, parents…
An alert and protection system deployed
She alerts territorial intelligence, the police, the school life principal, the deputy academic director, the town hall, etc. Then she writes a level 3 alert, which corresponds to an extremely serious event. A police car parked in front of the college for a few days, and on October 13, the principal accompanied Samuel Paty to file a complaint at the police station.
Then on October 16, at 4:45 p.m., the bell rang… And ten minutes later, the police called him to tell him that something horrible had just happened, that a person had been beheaded.
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A feeling of guilt for the former principal
The principal immediately thinks of Samuel Paty. “ I failed to protect himconcludes the former principal. It’s a huge waste. I won’t be able to move forward until these people are found guilty.. »
The two men, Brahim Chnina and Abdelhakim Sefrioui, are today in the dock for participation in a criminal terrorist association, a crime punishable by 30 years in prison.
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