Eight people go on trial over beheading of history teacher in Paris suburb

Eight people have gone on trial in Paris for their alleged role in events leading to the beheading of history teacher Samuel Paty in 2020, a case that horrified France and heightened fears of terrorist attacks on schools.

- Angelique Chrisafis

Paty, 47, was stabbed and then decapitated near his secondary school in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine by Abdoullakh Anzorov, a radicalised 18-year-old who had arrived in France aged six with his Chechen parents and had been granted asylum.

Anzorov, who was shot dead at the scene by police, killed Paty after messages spread on social media that the teacher had shown his class cartoons of the prophet Muhammad from the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.