Founder of pro-Hamas group accused of inciting beheading of Samuel Paty

Abdelhakim Sefrioui, the founder of a pro-Hamas collective in France, has been accused of helping create a video that falsely depicted Samuel Paty, the French teacher beheaded in 2020, as an Islamophobe. The video, which was part of a broader campaign of misinformation, is alleged to have stirred hatred towards Paty, contributing to the tragic events that followed. The video accused Paty of being a “thug” after he showed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad during a class on free speech. Sefrioui, who had previously been known to French security services for his Islamist activities and antisemitic rhetoric, is now on trial over his alleged involvement in spreading false information about the teacher. He is accused of helping prepare a video designed to incite hostility towards Paty. During questioning, Sefrioui claimed that he never intended for the video to lead to violence, stating that he and Brahim Chnina, the father of the teen accused of the murder, were merely calling for disciplinary action against Paty, not his murder. His defence lawyers calling the charge an “intellectual and judicial aberration,” arguing that there was no proof of direct contact between Sefrioui and the murderer, Abdoullakh Anzorov. The chain of events leading to Paty’s murder began with a false accusation by a 13-year-old student, who was not present during the lesson but claimed that Paty had shown the cartoons in an Islamophobic context. This lie, which the student later admitted to fabricating, led to a viral social media campaign launched by Chnina, which targeted Paty and is alleged to have spurred Anzorov to murder the teacher. The girl, now 17, later admitted to her falsehood during court proceedings, apologising tearfully to Paty’s family and stating that she deeply regretted the harm she had caused. She was sentenced to 18 months’ probation for the false accusations. Paty’s murder shocked France and raised serious concerns about the spread of Islamist radicalisation. Seven other individuals, including Chnina and Sefrioui – who founded the pro-Hamas Sheikh Yassine collective – are now facing charges related to the teacher's death, and their roles in the online harassment campaign are being examined as part of the ongoing trial, which is set to conclude on December 20. The trial is also examining the alleged involvement of Anzorov’s associates, including two young men, Naim Boudaoud and Azim Epsirkhanov, who is accused of assisting in preparing for the attack. Other individuals, like Yusuf Cinar, who are accused of shared jihadist material with Anzorov, and Priscilla Mangel, alleged to have supported the murder online, are also implicated. Lawyers representing Paty’s family have said that the trial has shed light on the extent of Islamist infiltration in French society, and they hope the proceedings will serve as a wake-up call to the dangers posed by radical ideologies. Members of the public sits in front of a portrait of Samuel Paty as France's Education and Youth Minister Gabriel Attal delivers a speech at the Sorbonne university in Paris on ctober 14, 2023, during the "Samuel Paty" award ceremony, organized by the Association of History and Geography Teachers (APHG) and called after the name of the history-geography teacher beheaded on October 16, 2020 for showing Mohammed cartoons during lessons on freedom of expression. A teacher was stabbed by a Chechen-origin man in the northeastern town of Arras On October 13, 2023, almost three years to the day after the October 16, 2020 beheading of teacher Samuel Paty, also by a Chechen, near his school in a Paris suburb. (Photo by Geoffroy VAN DER HASSELT / AFP) (Photo by GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images

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