In October 2020, he was murdered by an Islamic extremist outside his school. Just a few days before this, Patty had shown cartoons of Prophet Mohammed in his class during a discussion on freedom of expression. The attacker, an 18-year-old Russian of Chechen origin, was killed in police action.
The accused were tried in a special court in Paris. These accused were accused in some cases of providing assistance to the criminal and running online hate campaigns before the murder.
The 540-seat courtroom was packed when the verdict in this case was pronounced. During this period, tight security arrangements were made.
The attacker’s friends, Naim Boudoud, 22, and Azim Apsirkhanov, 23, were found guilty of complicity in the murder and sentenced to 16 years each. Boudoud was accused of driving the attacker to the school, while Apsirkhanov helped him purchase weapons.
Brahim Chanina, 52, is the Muslim father of the schoolgirl whose lies led to Patty’s death. Brahim was sentenced to 13 years in prison for belonging to a terrorist organization.
Muslim preacher Abdelhakim Sefrioui was sentenced to 15 years in prison for leading an online hate campaign against Paty.
Brahim’s daughter was 13 years old at the time of Patty’s murder. Her daughter had claimed that when Patty showed cartoons on October 5, 2020, she was thrown out of her class.
Brahim sent several messages to his informants condemning Patty, saying that Patty should be fired from his job. He also sent Patty’s school address in the messages, when in reality Brahim’s daughter had lied to him and had never attended the class in which the cartoons were shown.
Patty was teaching about freedom of speech. In this context, he had discussed cartoons and said that students who do not want to watch them can leave the class for a while.
Following this, an online campaign was launched against Patty and 11 days later the teacher was beheaded by Abdullakh Abueyzidovich Anzorov.
