A teenager whose false claims contributed to the 2020 beheading of French teacher Samuel Paty by an Islamist radical has apologised to his family in court.
Speaking on Tuesday during a trial in Paris, the 17-year-old expressed remorse, saying, “I destroyed your lives, I am sorry.”
The trial, which began earlier in November, involves eight individuals accused of fueling the hostility that led to the brutal murder.
Among them are Brahim Chnina, the teenager’s father, and Abdelhakim Sefrioui, a French-Moroccan Islamist activist.
Both men have been in detention for four years, accused of amplifying the teenager’s false accusations on social media to incite hatred against Paty.
ALSO READ: Cyber attack leaves UK supermarket with empty shelves, shortages
The incident dates back to when the girl, then 13, falsely claimed that Paty had shown caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in class after asking Muslim students to leave.
These allegations, which she admitted in court were fabricated to cover up her suspension from school, created an uproar that ultimately led to the teacher’s murder.
“I was panicked and stressed,” the teenager explained to the court, revealing that she lied to avoid punishment from her mother.
She stuck to the story even after Paty’s killing, only recanting during a police interrogation.
In her testimony, the girl described how Sefrioui coached her to repeat the lies in a video that went viral, painting Paty as a “teaching thug.”
She acknowledged exploiting her father’s trust, adding tearfully, “Without my lies, none of us would be here.”
Paty, 47, had used the controversial Charlie Hebdo cartoons as part of a lesson on free speech, a topic with a volatile history in France.
Weeks after the lesson, he was killed outside his school by an 18-year-old Chechen radical who was subsequently shot dead by police.
The teenager was convicted of slander in 2023 and sentenced to 18 months’ probation. The trial continues for others accused of creating a “climate of hatred” that led to Paty’s death.
and then