An overwhelmed Brahim Chnina and a combative Abdelhakim Sefrioui were separated by only a few meters in the defendants’ box at the Special Criminal Court appeals trial in Paris. Their demeanor during the hearing could not have been more different. From January 26 to 30, the first week of the appeal trial for the murder of teacher Samuel Paty in 2020 by a young jihadist of Chechen origin, focused on the backgrounds and personalities of the four defendants.
The backgrounds of Naïm Boudaoud and Azim Epsirkhanov, the two alleged accomplices of the attacker Abdoullakh Anzorov, who was killed by law enforcement immediately after the murder, revealed little due to their youth. But the life stories of Brahim Chnina and Abdelhakim Sefrioui, sentenced respectively to 13 and 15 years in prison for participation in a terrorist criminal conspiracy, offered more insight. Chnina, 53, and Sefrioui, 66, were a study in contrasts. Deeply affected by his role in the tragedy and by his time in detention, and weakened by illness, Chnina appeared much older than Sefrioui.
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