Beheading

France's anti-terrorism court convicted eight people on Friday of involvement in the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty in 2020. Paty was killed near Paris on October 16, 2020, days after showing his class cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a debate on free expression. The assailant, an 18-year-old Russian of Chechen origin, was shot to death by police. Those convicted were accused, in some cases, of providing assistance to the perpetrator and, in others, of organising a hate campaign online before the murder took place. The shocking death of the 47-year-old Paty left an imprint on France, and several schools are now named after him. The convicts include friends of assailant Abdoullakh Anzorov who allegedly helped purchase weapons for the attack and the father of a schoolgirl whose lies started the fatal spiral of events. The attack occurred against a backdrop of protests in many Muslim countries and calls online for violence targeting France and the satirical French newspaper

The prosecutor said the 18-year-old suspect, who was shot dead by police as he refused to surrender, was a refugee of Chechen origin and not previously known to the intelligence services