The family attorney of decapitated French teacher Samuel Paty is ‘upset’ at the revelation that a 13-year-old girl was spreading lies that led to his murder – and dissatisfied with the statements made so far.
Virginie Le Roy, who represents the Paty family, said she does not accept the teen’s excuse that peer pressure was part of the reason she lied about Muslim students in a class at the school west of Paris. teacher had to leave.
“This explanation does not satisfy me, it makes me a little angry because the facts are serious and dramatic,” she told RTL radio, Agence France-Press reported.
The girl, who has not been named, said that Paty, 47, had turned the Muslim students away so he could show the class a controversial cartoon of the prophet Mohammed.
But she later found out that she was not present at the class and had spread the fake story to please her father, who then filed a complaint against Paty.
“Everything in the investigation showed very early on that she was lying,” said Le Roy.
She said she was “skeptical” about the version of the events the girl is now narrating – specifically, her claim that other classmates had asked her to be “their spokesperson.”
A spokesperson for what? Of lies, of events that never happened? Le Roy said to the radio station.
The girl’s father at the time launched a campaign on social media against Paty for displaying the blasphemous image, which is considered highly offensive by Muslims.
As opposition to the teacher grew, he was murdered by an 18-year-old extremist, Abdullakh Anzorov.
The girl’s lawyer claimed on Monday that she lied “because she felt entangled in a chain of events.”
“There was a real unease, she felt obliged to add something to make this message stand out,” said attorney Mbeko Tabula, Euro News reported.
Tabula confirmed that she was not there in class on the day of the incident – blaming her absence on the fact that she was ill.
But the girl had apparently been suspended the day before and did not want her father to know about the sentence, French newspaper Le Parisien reported.
The girl has been charged with defamation while her father was arrested on suspicion of complicity in a terrorist murder, the Independent reported.
