Did Abdoullakh Anzorov openly confide in his plan to behead Samuel Paty?
Five days after the barbaric assassination of a 47-year-old history and geography professor in front of his college in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines), investigations confirm that the 18-year-old terrorist had spoken about the victim with several related people at the establishment.
The question now is whether they were aware that their exchanges would help the young jihadist to kill the teacher or whether they were disinterested.
In this context, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) must decide on Wednesday the legal fate of the ten suspects remaining in custody at the Anti-terrorism Sub-Directorate (Sdat) and the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI): a relative of student from Conflans, five college students, an Islamist activist and a friend of the killer.
If it is established that some could not ignore the fatal project of Abdoullkah Anzorov, the latter risk an indictment for "complicity in terrorist assassination" or "terrorist criminal association" Six other people - including four from the Anzorov family - were released on Tuesday evening.
PODCAST. A professor killed for doing his job: update on the assassination of Samuel Paty
Among the suspects still heard is Brahim C., father of a student at Conflans-Saint-Honorine college.
It was he who sparked the controversy around the course on freedom of expression given by Samuel Paty by posting videos on social networks where he shouted at the teacher.
This 48-year-old Algerian criticized the victim for showing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to his 4th year students.
His daughter was in one of Samuel Paty's classes but was not present during the famous civics class.
Messages that allude to cartoons
The telephone investigations revealed exchanges between Brahim C. and Abdoullakh Anzorov on the WhatsApp messaging the days preceding the attack, as revealed by our colleagues from BFMTV.
The terrorist would have contacted the father of the family through his phone number publicly broadcast in his videos of calls for mobilization against the teacher.
According to our information, the messages exchanged allude to the cartoons and the controversy surrounding the course but not explicitly to a project of violent action against Samuel Paty.
"There are also still unread encrypted messages which are being exploited," a source close to the investigation confided on Tuesday evening.
Calls were also highlighted without knowing their content.
In police custody, Brahim C. said he regretted that his videos could have led to the death of the teacher and assured that he was unaware of the intentions of Abdullakh Anzorov.
Refusing any adherence to radical Islam, he also claimed to have received many calls since the start of the controversy without being able to identify all his interlocutors.
Brahim C. the parent of a student in police custody.
He participated in the first video to request the dismissal of the teacher. / DR
Abdelhakim Sefrioui, a very active Islamist activist, was also still in police custody on Tuesday evening.
At this stage, the police have not uncovered any direct exchange between this 61-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan origin and the Chechen terrorist.
In front of the investigators, this pro Palestinian activist disputed any responsibility for the attack, explaining that he only demanded the exclusion of the professor.
But this influential activist, in the crosshairs of territorial intelligence in Essonne and the DGSI for ten years, had interfered in the controversy over the course of Samuel Paty.
He had given it a very wide response by posting in turn videos on YouTube denigrating the professor, whom he described as a “thug”, and threatened to raise the Muslim community against the college of Conflans.
Newsletter - Most of the news
Every morning, the news seen by Le Parisien
I'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers.
Learn more
Justice was trying to determine Tuesday evening if these calls to hatred could lead to prosecution for terrorism or if they fell under common law.
Without waiting for a response, President Emmanuel Macron announced the dissolution of the Cheikh Yassine collective, chaired by Abdelhakim Sefrioui and named in tribute to the founder of Hamas, because he would be "directly involved in the attack".
Prime Minister Jean Castex also said he was thinking about the creation ... of an offense of endangering the life of others by social networks, thus establishing a direct parallel between the hateful videos of Sefrioui and the murder of the professor.
"Some schoolchildren could not ignore that something very serious was going on"
Among the ten police custody, five college students from Conflans-Sainte-Honorine were also still auditioned.
On the day of the attack, Abdoullakh Anzorov had indeed offered a 14-year-old minor twice 150 euros so that he designated Samuel Paty to him at the end of the course.
This student, who was arrested again on Tuesday after a first interrupted police custody, explained that he shared the jihadist's money with four other comrades in exchange for information on the victim.
Several of these college students, who spent the afternoon with the terrorist, could be prosecuted despite their young age.
"Some could not ignore that something very serious was brewing for the professor", estimates a close to the investigations.
The subject of the cartoons would have been discussed in particular, but it is not known whether the terrorist had poured out his desire to behead the teacher.
Finally, the role of three friends of Chechen origin of the terrorist questions.
Two of them had accompanied Abdoullakh Anzorov to Rouen (Seine-Maritime) at his request the day before the attack.
The young man would have taken advantage of this excursion to acquire in a store one of the daggers found on his remains.
One of the suspects had also taken him by car from Normandy to the Paris region on the day of the tragedy.
All claim, however, that they were unaware of their friend's murderous intentions.
