One voice had to break the confidentiality of two weeks of hearings behind closed doors. It was that of the judge of the Paris juvenile court who, on Firday, December 8, pronounced the sentences of the six former students standing trial. Her speech barely lasted 20 minutes. The police presence, the solemn silence and the bank of cameras showed that this hearing was not just another "children's" trial.

The six teenagers, who arrived in the courtroom with their faces hidden behind surgical masks, hoods or scarves, appeared for their involvement in the murder of Samuel Paty, who was stabbed and then decapitated on October 16, 2020, near the Collège du Bois-d'Aulne in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, west of Paris, where he taught history and geography. They were aged between 13 and 15 at the time.

Five of them were charged with the same offense – "criminal conspiracy to organize aggravated violence." In particular, on the day of the tragedy, they were accused of having staked out the area around the school and facilitated the access of the killer, Abdoullakh Anzorov, to his target.

'Do you understand?'

The teenager who first met this young terrorist of Chechen origin, before recruiting his sidekicks, was sentenced to two years in prison, including six months in detention, and to wear an electronic bracelet. The sentences of the other four boys ranged from 14 to 20 months, suspended on probation (with a series of obligations, including training and supervision by childhood professionals).

The judge called the teenagers to the stand one by one to pronounce their sentences, which were broadly in line with the anti-terrorist prosecutor's requisitions. "Do you understand?" she asked each one. "Yes," they all replied, before returning, heads down, to sit on the bench, supported by the calm presence of their families, who had come in large numbers.

The role of the sixth defendant – the youngest in the group – began even earlier in the case. According to her, the teacher – whose class she had not attended – had shown cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad after asking Muslim pupils to leave the classroom. This unfounded rumor focused attention on the teacher, who became a target, particularly on social media. Highlighting the "existence of a persistent lie" that the teenager "acknowledged," and which had been "acted upon" by a complaint lodged against Paty, the court sentenced her to 18 months' probation for "slanderous allegations."

A second trial in 2024

This long-awaited verdict concluded a complex trial, which straddled the line between the requirements of a juvenile court and those of counter-terrorism law. So much so that, as they left the transfixed courtroom, the lawyers were quick to comment on the verdict. Dylan Slama, the lawyer for one of the former students, stressed, without triumphalism, his client's "relief" at the end of a "fairly instructive" trial. Pierre-Alexandre Kopp, lawyer to another of the boys, pointed out that even before the verdict, which he considered "balanced," his client was "crushed by the consequence of his moral failing, which he understood."

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