Six French teens convicted over their roles in an Islamic extremist's killing of a teacher

PARIS (AP) — A French juvenile court on Friday convicted six teenagers for their roles in the 2020 beheading of a teacher by an Islamic extremist, an attack that shocked the country and shone a light on the realworld dangers of online hate speech.

Samuel Paty, a history and geography teacher, was killed near his school after showing his class cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a debate on free expression. Attacker Abdoullakh Anzorov, a young Chechen who had become radicalized, was killed by police.

The court found five of the defendants, who were 14 and 15 at the time of the attack, guilty of involvement in staking out the teacher and identifying him for the attacker. The sixth defendant, 13 at the time, was found guilty of lying about the classroom debate in a comment that aggravated online anger against the teacher.

After the ruling, the six defendants left the courtroom without speaking. Some had their heads down as they listened to the verdict. One appeared to wipe tears.

The teenagers — all students at Paty's school — acknowledged wrongdoing, and testified that they didn't know the teacher would be killed.

One was given a sixmonth prison term but allowed to serve it under house arrest with an electronic bracelet. The others were given special suspended sentences of between two and three years requiring them to stay in school or jobs and attend regular medical meetings. The sentences included special educative follow-up measures that also involved their families.

Lawyers for Paty's family decried the sentences as too lenient. Lawyers for the teenagers expressed relief.

Paty's name was disclosed on social media after the class debate, during which he showed caricatures of Islam's prophet published by the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. The publication had triggered a deadly extremist massacre in the Charlie Hebdo newsroom in 2015.

The cartoon images deeply offended many Muslims in France and around the world, who see them as sacrilegious. But Paty's killing reinforced the French state's commitment to freedom of expression, and its firm attachment to secularism in public life.

The five who identified Paty to the attacker were convicted of involvement in a group preparing aggravated violence.

The sixth defendant wrongly claimed that Paty had asked Muslim students to raise their hands and leave the classroom before he showed the class the cartoons. She was not in the classroom that day, and later told investigators she had lied. She was convicted of making false allegations.

Her lawyer Mbeko Tebula said she ''doesn't forgive herself for this lie.''