On October 6th, 2020 in a school outside Paris, teacher Samuel Paty gave a lesson on freedom of speech – the same lesson he had given several times before which involved showing drawings of the prophet Muhammad – to a class of teenagers.
He was later beheaded outside the school in a savage attack that shocked France. The assailant Abdoullakh Anzorov, the young man of Chechen origin who wielded the knife, is dead – shot by police in the minutes after his attack.
The next day one of his pupils – the 13-year-old girl – was asked by her father why she was not going to school. She told him she had been disciplined because she dared to stand up to Paty when he told Muslims to leave the class so he could show a naked picture of the prophet. It was all a lie; she was not even in school that day.
Believing her, her father took to social media to condemn Paty and the story grew online.
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On trial are two men accused of identifying Paty as a “blasphemer” over the Internet, two friends of Anzorov who allegedly gave him logistical help, and four others who offered support on chatlines.
As BBC correspondent in Paris, Hugh Schofield explains to In the News that the trial is less about the murder itself, and more about the circumstances that led to it.
Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey.
