Six teenagers were convicted by a court in Paris on Friday in connection with the attack on Samuel Paty, a history teacher whose killing by an Islamist extremist in 2020 shook France to its core.
Five of the defendants, former middle-school students at the school where Mr. Paty taught, were found guilty of helping the killer identify and track the teacher, although they were not believed to have known that he intended to kill. They were convicted on charges of being involved in a criminal conspiracy to prepare a violent assault.
Mr. Paty, 47, had shown caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad during a civics class to illustrate free speech, and was subsequently beheaded because of the act on Oct. 16, 2020, near the school where he worked in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a northwestern suburb of Paris.
The assailant, Abdoullakh Anzorov, was an 18-year-old Russian of Chechen descent. He had stalked Mr. Paty’s school the day of the killing and had enlisted the five teenagers’ help in exchange for about $320, telling them he wanted to confront Mr. Paty and force him to apologize. Mr. Anzorov was shot and killed by the police shortly after the attack.
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