Two mixed and misinterpreted articles, accusations based on the sole testimony of an Islamist activist currently in custody, references to his supposed proximity to Emmanuel Macron… This is how the rector of the Academy of Versailles, Charline Avenel, s 'is found accused of wanting to "crack down" against Samuel Paty, the history and geography professor in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines) murdered by an Islamist terrorist on Friday evening.
Forcing the rectorate to denounce "false information" in a press release published this Sunday at the end of the day.
Feedback on 24 hours of runaway.
A video in which Abdelhakim Sefrioui accuses
It all starts on Saturday, in the middle of the afternoon.
Le Point magazine publishes an article on its website entitled: "Conflans: the role of a radicalized agitator pointed out".
The text questions the involvement of Islamist activist Abdelhakim Sefrioui in the attack that occurred less than 24 hours earlier.
In a video published a few days after Samuel Paty's class during which he presented his students with caricatures of Mohammed, Sefrioui posted a video on social networks.
“As there was going to be nothing on the part of the establishment [no follow-up or sanction, Editor's note], we left with the firm intention of mobilizing for action in front of the establishment and in front of the academic inspection.
But, in the afternoon, the Academic Inspectorate contacted the student's parent and expressed his astonishment and [the fact] that they were going to crack down… ”, he proclaims in the image.
The rector targeted by name
Shortly after the publication of this article, several personalities, including far-right figures or elected officials, react on Twitter by sharing a screenshot of this passage.
They attack by name the rector of the Academy of Versailles, Charline Avenel.
"She must IMMEDIATELY RESIGN", tackles the identity activist Damien Rieu, while the regional councilor National Rally (RN) of Brittany Gilles Pennelle describes her as "coward".
Incredible! #SamuelPaty had against him the Islamists but also ... the rector of the Yvelines academy!
We must demand the resignation of this coward! #ConflansSainteHonorine https://t.co/CTFOV569pe
- Gilles Pennelle (@GillesPennelle) October 17, 2020
A little later in the evening, the magazine Valeurs internationales publishes on its site an article titled "Decapitated professor: the rector of the Yvelines academy wanted to
crack down
" (it has since been modified, but we find the original version on the website archive).
This title is a double shortcut: not only was the rector in person never mentioned in Abdelhakim Sefrioui's remarks, but he is not particularly reliable since he is clearly involved in this story.
The militant Islamizes is also one of eleven people in custody Sunday evening.
Confusion between two articles
More annoying: in the paragraph presenting the article, it is written that "Samuel Paty was preparing to be sanctioned by the Yvelines academy for having dared to show caricatures of the prophet Mohammed, reveals a note from local agents of territorial intelligence" .
This note (which Le Parisien was also able to consult) is the subject of another article in Le Point, "Teacher assassinated: the explosive note of territorial intelligence", published Saturday evening.
This confidential document from the central territorial intelligence service (SCRT), dated October 12, reviews the reaction of the academic inspectorate after the session of the cartoons of Muhammad.
We read in particular that Samuel Paty received the arrival of an inspector to remind him of "the rules of secularism and neutrality".
No notion of sanction appears.
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Clearly, Current values seems to have tangled the brushes between the video of Sefrioui, which evokes the supposed will of the Inspectorate of the academy to "crack down", and the note of the SCRT, which mentions only a simple reminder of rules.
And the ultra-conservative magazine is not the only one in this case: the part of the National Rally Jean Messiha said he was "appalled to learn that the rector Charline Avenel was preparing to
crack down
on Samuel Paty", in sharing the article on… the intelligence service note.
"Le Point has never written that or myself," said the journalist for the weekly, author of the two articles, Aziz Zemouri.
@LePoint never wrote this nor myself on this account @ azizzemouri1 #Eragny #Conflans #Republique #CharlieHebdo pic.twitter.com/FImMQY2dgS
- aziz zemouri (@ azizzemouri1) October 18, 2020
Exploding Google searches
Too late: these messages from activists or elected officials of the RN were massively shared on social networks.
And this is how Charline Avenel has become, despite herself, the target of many attacks since Saturday evening.
His name has at times become one of the most talked about topics on Twitter, as related Google searches have exploded.
His photo was also widely shared to illustrate insulting messages.
Let us add to this that the former number 2 of the National Front (former name of the RN), Florian Philippot, also pointed out his supposed proximity to Emmanuel Macron, based on an article in La Dépêche published in 2018. On It read in particular that the rector and the head of state were from the same promotion of the ENA.
Which is factually correct, indicates the Official Journal, but we do not see the link with this assassination of a professor of history and geography.
"Two years after this friend of Macron became rector, Charline Avenel, was preparing to crack down on # SamuelPaty… The worst is that tomorrow she will always be rector", gets carried away the former close to Marine Le Pen.
"Absurd and paradoxical": the rectorate communicates
The official response took place in two stages this Sunday.
At midday, the Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, described as "false" the information according to which Samuel Paty had been lectured.
"There was full support from the professor," he assured France Inter.
Then, at the end of the day, the Academy of Versailles published a long press release detailing the chronology of events.
“The institution has always been in full support of Mr. Paty.
At no time was it said, or even implied, or thought that the institution was going to
crack down
on Mr. Paty ”, it is written.
And the academy to judge "absurd and paradoxical to give credit to the words of this person
(Abdelhakim Sefrioui, Editor's note)
".
Press release:
The school institution alongside Samuel Paty at every stage of what preceded this tragedy.
https://t.co/xrSUeCF1zD pic.twitter.com/BnrLf1Gykg
- Academy of Versailles (@acversailles) October 18, 2020
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This Sunday at the end of the afternoon, current values also rectified the situation.
The address of his first article now refers to another page, titled "Caricatures in class: the academy of Versailles has always supported the killed professor".
The article is more complete and constructed differently, but it does not include an explanatory message for the readers on these different versions.
As for Charline Avenel, that no element therefore personally implicates at this time, she did not react in person.
Friday evening, a few hours after the attack, she had denounced "a despicable act".
And then to add: “My thoughts are with his family, his colleagues and his students.
We are at their side to get through this ordeal.
"
