The gruesome beheading case of Samuel Patti is being revived in court these days.

During the trial at the Special Criminal Court in Paris, a schoolgirl of Muslim origin admitted to lying that history and geography teacher Samuel Patti had behaved in an Islamophobic manner. Her false accusation had set off a chain of events that culminated in the horrific murder of Patti by a jihadist in 2020.

Patti, 47, was publicly beheaded on October 16, 2020, by 18-year-old Abdulak Anzorov, a radicalized Islamist of Chechen origin, after false claims and videos spread on social media.

The student, then 13, had alleged that Patti had asked Muslim students to leave the classroom before presenting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad from the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. In her apology, the young woman confessed that she was not present in class and made up the story because she feared her parents’ reaction because of a two-hour suspension for misbehavior.

With tears in her eyes, the student apologised to the victim’s family, saying: “I know this is hard to hear, but I wanted to apologise… I wanted to sincerely apologize. I’m sorry for destroying your life,” he reportedly said. “I apologize for my lie that brought us all here,” she added, admitting to the audience: “Without me, no one would be here.”

The case revealed the profound challenges France faces with radicalisation and disinformation, and Patti has been recognised as a symbol of freedom of speech in the country. He had shown the Charlie Hebdo cartoons to students as part of an ethics lesson in which students discussed the fallout from the 2015 terrorist attack on the newspaper’s offices in which 12 people were murdered by extremists. But he had not “kicked out” any students to leave the classroom, instead telling them what he was going to do as part of the lesson, before asking them to leave if they thought they would be offended by the cartoons.

The student’s father, Brahim Snina, is accused of organising an online harassment campaign against Patti, while other students and accomplices of the perpetrator are accused of participating in the murder. Specifically, the trial, which is being held at the Special Criminal Court in Paris, accused seven men and one woman, including Brahim Sina, father of the student who had launched the false accusation, and 65-year-old Abdelhakim Sefrioui, an Islamic activist. According to the prosecution, the two men used social media to target Patti, inciting hatred and paving the way for the crime. The defendants also include two friends of the killer, who are accused of complicity in a terrorist murder. Naim Budaud and Azim Epsirhanov allegedly accompanied him to buy weapons and provided material support. Four other defendants allegedly communicated with the perpetrator through online platforms, promoting hate material.

After Patti’s murder, the student was taken into police custody, during which time she continued to lie. “My teacher had been beheaded, my father was in police custody, I couldn’t say it was a lie,” she said. She finally confessed the truth after 30 hours and two police interrogations.

The schoolgirl was sentenced to 18 months in prison with probation for the slanderous allegations she made against Patti, which ultimately proved to be a catalyst for his murder. Her five co-defendants, who were all aged 14 or 15 at the time of the murder, faced charges of criminal conspiracy to prepare for aggravated violence. Four were given suspended sentences, but one was given a six-month sentence with an electronic tag after being identified as the person who pointed Patti out to Anzorov.