PARIS – In the freedom of expression lecture, Hz. The father of a French student who said the use of caricatures of Muhammad indirectly led to the brutal murder of the teacher went on trial on Monday, accused of having links to a terrorist organisation.

Samuel Paty, 47, was stabbed multiple times by an 18-year-old attacker of Chechen origin outside his school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, near Paris, in 2020, and was beheaded days after showing the cartoons to his students.

Many Muslims consider depictions of the prophets to be blasphemous.

Prosecutors allege that Brahim Chnina used social media to turn a dispute over a civics class into a campaign against Paty, helping create videos designed to incite hatred against the middle school teacher and distributing them on social networks.

They accuse Chnina of collaborating with the French-Moroccan Abdelhakim Sefrioui, who founded the hard-line Islamist organization Cheikh Yassine Collective, which was later banned in France.

Both men are accused of membership in a terrorist organization. Chnina’s lawyer declined to comment before the start of the hearing.

Sefrioui’s lawyer, Ouadie Elhamamouchi, said there was no evidence of contact between Sefrioui and the Chechen killer whom police shot and killed.

Elhamamouchi told Reuters that Sefrioui would show the court that he had “absolutely no connection with this disgusting attack, which he has condemned from day one.”

The other six people on trial alongside Chnina and Sefrioui in Paris include two associates of Paty’s killer, Abdullakh Anzorov. Prosecutors allege they knew of Anzorov’s plans to kill Paty and helped him buy weapons.

Both are accused of complicity in a terrorist murder, and French media say they both deny the crimes.

Last year, a court found Chnina’s daughter and five other teenagers guilty of charges of participating in a premeditated criminal conspiracy and helping prepare an ambush.

Chnina’s daughter was not in Paty’s class when the cartoons were shown, and the court found her guilty of making false accusations and slanderous comments.

The final trial is expected to last until December. REUTERS