The Muslim student who spread rumors that her teacher was an Islamophobe, ultimately leading to his decapitation by a jihadist, has admitted to lying. The schoolgirl apologized to the victim's family during a court hearing on Tuesday.
Samuel Paty, 47, was brutally stabbed and decapitated in 2020 by Abdoullakh Anzorov, an 18-year-old Islamist radical from Chechnya, an autonomous republic within Russia. Anzorov tracked Paty down and hacked his head off after seeing photos and videos of him that were going viral on social media as part of a harassment campaign.
Those rumors began after the schoolgirl claimed that Paty had ordered Muslim students to leave his classroom while showing the rest of the class a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad by the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo—the same depiction that sparked the 2015 Islamist attacks on Charlie Hebdo's offices, which left 12 people dead.
The girl revealed in court that she was not even in the class at the time and had fabricated the story after being suspended for two days for unrelated bad behavior. She explained that she lied out of fear of being punished by her parents for the suspension. She was 13 at the time of the incident, and her identity remains protected due to her age.
“I know it's hard to hear, but I wanted to apologize... I wanted to apologize sincerely. I'm sorry for destroying your life,” she reportedly said, according to the Daily Mail. “I apologize for my lie that brought us all back here,” she added. “Without me, no one would be here.”
Brahim Chnina, the girl's father, is accused of initiating the online harassment campaign against Paty. Other teenage students were tried last year for helping identify Paty to Anzorov in exchange for several hundred euros.
Anzorov, who arrived in France as a refugee seeking asylum, traveled 60 miles to attack Paty in public. He was killed by police shortly after the murder, near the Paris-area school.
Paty had shown the caricatures to students as part of an ethics lesson discussing the fallout from the Charlie Hebdo attacks. Contrary to the girl's claims, Paty did not order any students to leave the room; instead, he informed them ahead of time about the lesson and invited those who might be offended to look away.
Seven men and one woman are appearing at the Special Assize Court in Paris over Paty’s murder—among them is the schoolgirl’s father, who faces charges of association with a terrorist organization for his alleged involvement.
Chnina’s daughter and six others were tried last year: “I wanted to tell my parents that it was false. I knew that my father was not going to do anything to me, but I was afraid to say it,” the girl said in court. After the attack, she continued to lie, explaining that the stakes felt insurmountable: “My teacher had been decapitated, my father was in police custody, I couldn't say it was false.”
The girl was sentenced to an 18-month suspended sentence for making false allegations against Paty, which contributed to his murder.
“Her five co-defendants, all of whom were aged 14 or 15 at the time of the murder, faced charges of criminal conspiracy with the aim of preparing aggravated violence. Four were handed suspended sentences, but one received a six-month term with an electronic tag after being identified as the person who pointed Paty out to Anzorov,” writes the Daily Mail.
In October 2020, one week after Paty’s death, the cartoon depiction of Muhammad was projected onto government buildings in France as a tribute to the teacher.
