Six French teenagers were convicted on Friday by a juvenile court in relation to the 2020 beheading of a school teacher conducted by an Islamic extremist.
The attack shocked the European nation and put the spotlight on the real-world dangers of online hate speech. The victim in the case was Samuel Paty, who was a history and geography teacher.
French Teenagers Convicted
Paty was killed near his school after showing his class cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a debate on free expression. The Islamic extremist who attacked him was identified as Abdoullakh Anzorov, who was a young Chechen who became radicalized and later killed by law enforcement personnel.
The French court found that five of the teenage defendants, who were aged 14 and 15 at the time of the crime, were guilty of involvement in staking out Paty and identifying him for the assailant.
The sixth defendant, who was 13 at the time of the incident, was found guilty of lying about the classroom debate in comments that aggravated online anger against the school teacher, as per ABC News.
Following the French court's ruling, the six defendants left the courtroom without speaking a word. Some of them had their heads down as they listened to the judge's verdict regarding their case. One of them appeared to have been wiping away tears.
The teenagers were all students at Paty's school and they acknowledged wrongdoing as they testified that they did not know that the teacher would be killed. One of the teenage defendants was given a six-month prison term but was allowed to serve under house arrest with an electronic bracelet.
The other five were given special suspended sentences of between two and three years that required them to stay in school or jobs. The sentences against the teenagers included special educative follow-up measures that also involved their families.
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Islamic Extremist Killing of School Teacher
Anzorov allegedly stalked Paty's school on the day of the killing and enlisted the help of five teenagers in exchange for roughly $320. He told them that he wanted to confront the school teacher and force him to apologize for his actions, according to the New York Times.
Despite the convictions, officials did not identify the suspects in the case as they were all tried behind closed doors by a criminal court for minors. The defendants all walked in and out of the courtroom on Friday wearing masks, hoodies, or sunglasses to hide their faces.
The murder of Paty came after much larger terrorist attacks in 2015 and 2016 that left hundreds of people dead. However, the nature of the violence surrounding the school teacher's death was devastating in a different way.
The situation comes as Muslims and migrants from the Arab world argue that they face widespread discrimination and racism in French society. They added that French traditions of keeping religion out of public spaces have been wielded selectively.
French politicians, particularly those on the right, have frequently leaned into rhetoric that portrays Muslims and Arabs as violent and uncivilized, said Aljazeera.
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