Sister of beheaded French teacher relieved after trial hears admission of one defendant's guilt

Family says it won't accept apology from accused unless they take on responsibility

Samuel Paty's sister Gaelle Paty, second right, and his mother Bernadette Paty, left, arrive at the Paris Special Assize Court. AFP

Relatives of a French history teacher beheaded four years ago by a teenager were surprised by a confession of guilt in court from an associate of the killer.

A sister welcomed how one of the defendants, a former friend of the killer, said he had made the biggest mistake of his life.

“Admitting one's responsibility, it's like admitting that it [the killing] really happened,” Gaelle Paty told the court in Paris on Friday, standing in a large room that was especially built for terrorism trials after the capital was hit by a wave of ISIS-inspired attacks in 2015. “I felt myself loosen up.”

Her brother, Samuel Paty, 47, was found stabbed and beheaded outside his school near Paris in October 2020, weeks after a smear campaign following a class during which he showed caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed published by the magazine Charlie Hebdo.

A poster depicting French teacher Samuel Paty placed in the city centre of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, 30kms northwest of Paris, on November 3, 2020, following his decapitation on October 16. AFP

The trial has been closely followed in France, where Mr Paty's death has become a symbol of freedom of expression and has prompted soul-searching debates on how to better protect public sector teachers whose job it is to promote France's values of secularism. In December 2023, another teacher was stabbed to death by a Russian Islamist in the northern city of Arras.

Mr Paty's killer, 18-year-old Abdoullakh Anzorov, had shown admiration for the extremist group ISIS in private chat groups with friends and had said he wanted to join the group in Syria. He was shot dead by police shortly after the murder.

Several of his friends, who are accused of supporting his plans, have been on trial since Monday. It will continue until December 20.

Shock and anger

The defendants include Ismail Gamaev, a 22-year-old Russian-born student, who sent smiling emojis in response to a message sent by Mr Anzorov showing Mr Paty's severed head. All eight defendants rejected the accusations against them, until Mr Gamaev on Wednesday surprised the court by spontaneously confessing.

“I acknowledge my guilt. This is the worst thing I've ever done in my life. I'm very ashamed of it. I'm ashamed of the harm I've done to the different families,” said Mr Gamaev in a trembling voice, according to local media reports. Noticing that Ms Paty had become emotional, Mr Gamaev added, in tears: “It affects me a lot.”

Currently a business student, Mr Gamaev appeared in court free after two years in pretrial detention. Born in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya which was flattened by war in the mid-1990s, he arrived illegally in France at age 11 before obtaining refugee status. In private Instagram messages, he expressed approval for Mr Paty's killing and also had plans to join ISIS in Syria. He could face a 30-year sentence for terrorist conspiracy.

Friday was the first day that Mr Paty's family were heard in court. Several criticised the defendants for not admitting guilt or offering apologies.

“When I hear that nearly all the defendants reject accusations against them, I'm deeply shocked. I'm angry. I'll never accept apologies from someone who doesn't admit his guilt,” said Ms Paty.

“Each of you could have stopped this from spinning out of control and save the life of a father, a son, and a teacher, and you didn't,” she added, speaking after Mr Paty's former partner, Jeanne Alquier, described difficulties in bringing up alone their traumatised nine-year-old son, Gabriel, who was listening to the hearings in court.

Another sister, Mickaelle Paty, who has published a book about her brother, accused the defendants of hypocrisy. “Your lies armed the hand of the terrorist who cut off my brother's head,” she said. “I believe that the judiciary will be extremely firm [against you].”

The campaign against her brother started after one of his students, a girl, falsely alleged that Mr Paty had forced Muslim students out of class before showing drawings of the Prophet Mohammed – a class that, it turned out, she had never attended. Mr Paty had shown the caricatures as part of a civic and moral education class that he had given for the past four years to 13-year-olds without previous issues. He had said students who wished to do so could look away while the drawings were briefly shown.

But the girl's father, Brahim Chnina, a 52-year-old Moroccan citizen who is also currently on trial, posted videos online asking her to repeat her claims, despite being told by the school that his daughter had lied. He was supported in his campaign against Mr Paty by Abdelhakim Sefrioui, a 65-year-old French-Moroccan citizen described by investigators as close to the Muslim Brotherhood, who accused President Emmanuel Macron of being at war with Islam.

Mr Paty's mother Bernadette, a former teacher, said she was happy to have retired considering how strained relations between teachers and students had become.

“Teachers are now challenged all the time,” she said. “With my husband, we ended our career in … a neighbourhood with lots of people originally from the Maghreb. We never faced any issues. We always had good relations. I don't understand what's happening. I don't understand the world I live in.”