The requisitions in the appeal trial of the assassination of Samuel Paty were announced on Friday, February 27, and are more severe than the verdict in the first instance. “We are trying to make this trial an example,” denounced the defense.
Heavy sentences were requested in the appeal trial of the assassination of Samuel Paty. On Friday, February 27, in front of the special assizes court of Paris, the public prosecutor requested 16 years of imprisonment for complicity in the assassination against two relatives of the terrorist, Abdoullakh Anzorov, who decapitated Samuel Paty.
Regarding the two instigators of the hate campaign against the teacher, Brahim Chnina and the Islamist preacher Abdelhakim Sefriou, the prosecutor requested 20 years of imprisonment. These are even more severe requisitions than in the first instance trial, where the two instigators had been sentenced to 13 and 15 years of imprisonment for their 10-day campaign from October 7 to 16.
“On the two instigators. The sentences are heavy, symbolic,” highlights Virginie Leroy, lawyer for Samuel Paty’s family, on RMC. “The attack on the teacher and the Republic is there. The fire that was caused by their campaign is paramount, it is not an attack like any other.”
“I believe we have been heard, it’s a good thing,” she added.
“The genres are mixed”
According to the public prosecutor, there is no doubt: Brahim Chnina and Abdelhakim Sefrioui created the conditions for a terrorist act. Their digital hate campaign against Samuel Paty put a target on his back and “spread terror throughout the school.”
“It is a firm, clear, precise indictment,” congratulated Maître Szpiner, the other lawyer for the teacher’s family. “It addresses both the issue of criminal liability and the stakes of this trial, which is to ensure that those who attack the school understand that the Republic will not show weakness.”
This societal issue has been highlighted several times by the public prosecutor “and that is indeed the problem,” protested Maître Brengart, defense lawyer, who denounced excessive and political requisitions.
“It’s obvious. We are trying to make an example through this trial. But in fact, it is not for an assize court to decide on societal issues. There is a confusion of genres, an extremely serious confusion of roles.”
The verdict of the trial is expected on Monday, March 2, just after the final words of the defendants who still refute any involvement in the assassination of Samuel Paty.
