Assassination of Samuel Paty: Abdelhakim Sefrioui faces justice

The Franco-Moroccan preacher rejects the accusations against him. "I have never been convicted of violence or incitement to hatred," he says, denying being a key figure of radical Islam in France, as suggested by the "white notes of prefect Laurent Nuñez," and denouncing the "gossip" of Imam Hassen Chalghoumi, the leader of moderate Islam in France. Placed in detention on October 16, 2020, a few days after the assassination of teacher Samuel Paty, Abdelhakim Sefrioui had initially been indicted for "complicity in terrorist assassination," then for "criminal terrorist conspiracy," reports Le Nouvel Observateur.

Two weeks before the murder, the activist had described Samuel Paty as a "hooligan" in the Bois-d’Aulne college where the latter taught, believing that the teacher had shown Islamophobia by showing "Charlie Hebdo" caricatures during a class. He was accompanied by Brahim Chnina, the father of the student who had denounced Samuel Paty, who has become his co-defendant. In a video recorded in front of the establishment and widely circulated on social networks, he called for the teacher’s expulsion. "A campaign of hatred orchestrated," denounces the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office.

The detention of Abdelhakim Sefrioui is "a scandal of the State," his first lawyer, Ouadie Elhamamouchi, had become angry, denouncing "a political file." The activist is known to the French police and justice system. Born in Fez, Morocco, the preacher arrived in France in 1982 to pursue his studies at the University of Le Mans. In 1985, he marries Nelly, a French woman converted to Islam. The couple has three children. That same year, he participates, as a defender of the rights of the Palestinian people, in a demonstration against the Israeli ambassador visiting his campus.

Quickly, the Franco-Moroccan reveals himself as a committed preacher. He runs a prayer room in Les Ulis in Essonne and becomes a founding member of the Council of Imams of France, which promotes an ideology close to the Muslim Brotherhood. After his divorce in 2000, the Islamist activist devotes himself to his religious bookstore, located near the Omar Mosque in Paris (11th). Then, in 2004, he creates the Cheikh Yassine collective, named after the Hamas leader killed by the Israeli army that same year. Under this banner, he participates in many demonstrations where Israeli flags are burned.

"This 65-year-old man who has dedicated his life to teaching and leading a political struggle is accused of not having anticipated the unimaginable," are surprised the lawyers of Sefrioui, Vincent Brengarth and Colomba Grossi. And his first lawyer, Ouadie Elhamaouchi, to hammer: "Abdelhakim Sefrioui is neither a Salafist nor a jihadist. He is a pro-Palestinian activist. To say otherwise is to play with the atmosphere and the atmosphere that one wants to give to this file because it is empty."