Overview
- The family's lawyers argued the teacher was killed for laïcité and freedom of expression and framed the online campaign against him as a 'digital fatwa.'
- Four men are on trial on appeal in Paris over roles in the 2020 killing, with two accused of complicity in assassination and facing potential life sentences.
- Parent Brahim Chnina and activist Abdelhakim Sefrioui were portrayed as orchestrators of the social‑media mobilization that targeted the teacher and had earlier received 13‑ and 15‑year terms for terrorist association.
- Court reporting underscored that the attacker identified Samuel Paty online days before the murder after a lesson showing caricatures of Muhammad, and he was then shot dead by police he threatened.
- Chnina and Sefrioui contend their actions were driven by a father's grievance and anti‑discrimination activism rather than blasphemy, a claim the family and its counsel disputed in court.