Eight face trial in France on conspiracy, accessory charges in beheading of teacher

Nov. 4 (UPI) -- A trial got underway Monday in Paris of eight people facing a range of charges related to the murder of French schoolteacher Samuel Paty, who was beheaded in an Islamist terror attack outside his school after he he used caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad for a class on free speech.

The assailant, Russian-born Adboullakh Anzorov, 18, was shot and killed by police shortly after the October 2020 murder but the trial is for six people accused of involvement in an online campaign targeting Paty that spurred on Anzorov and of glorifying the attack on social media and two others for helping him acquire weapons.

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