A French court on Friday convicted two friends of the jihadist who beheaded a French history and geography teacher of complicity in the killing, jailing them for 16 years.

Prosecutors had sought life sentences for Naim Boudaoud, 22, and Azim Epsirkhanov, 23, for the brutal murder outside Samuel Paty’s school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, west of Paris, which horrified France.

Mr Paty, 47, was killed in October 2020 by an 18-year-old Islamist radical of Chechen origin after showing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in class.

His killer, Abdoullakh Anzorov, died in a shoot-out with police. It later transpired he sent a photo minutes after the murder to a member of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the group that toppled Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, and received a warm reply.

The friends were found guilty of providing Anzorov logistical support, including to buy weapons.

Prosecutor Marine Valentin said that the accused had been “fully aware” of the killer’s “jihadist convictions” when they helped him.