Sentences are expected for 8 people who are on trial for their role in the beheading of teachers in France

PARIS (AP) – Eight people accused of helping an Islamic extremist who beheaded a French history teacher will hear verdicts in their cases on Friday, more than four years after Samuel Paty died outside his school.

Paty was killed near Paris on October 16, 2020, days after showing his class cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a debate on freedom of speech. The attacker, an 18-year-old Russian of Chechen origin, was shot dead by police.

Those who have been tried on terrorism charges at a special court in Paris since the end of November are accused, in some cases, of providing assistance to the perpetrator and, in others, of organizing a hate campaign on the Internet before the killing.

The shocking death of Paty, 47, has left a legacy in France, and many schools have been named after her.

Prosecutors requested that the defendants be sentenced to 18 to 16 months in prison. They include friends of the attacker Abdoullakh Anzorov who is suspected of helping to buy weapons for the attack and the father of a schoolboy whose lies led to the horrific incidents.

The national anti-terrorism prosecutor asked the court to reduce the charges against four of the eight defendants, which angered Paty's family.

“It's more than embarrassing,” Paty's sister Mickaëlle told broadcaster TF1. “At a time like this, it feels like one is fighting for nothing.”

The public prosecutor dropped the conspiracy charge in favor of the lesser charge of association with a terrorist enterprise against two young men accused of supporting the killer. He asked for 14 years in prison for Naïm Boudaoud and 16 years for Azim Epsirkhanov.

The attack came after protests in many Muslim countries and sparked online violence against France and the blasphemous French newspaper Charlie Hebdo. The newspaper had republished its images of the Prophet Muhammad in the weeks before Paty's death to mark the opening of a deadly 2015 attack on its newsroom by Islamist militants.

The cartoons angered many Muslims, who saw them as blasphemous. But the aftermath of Paty's murder reinforced the French government's commitment to freedom of expression and its strict adherence to nationalism in public life.

Most of the attention in the case focused on Brahim Chnina, the Muslim father of the child who was 13 at the time and said he was expelled from Paty's class when he showed caricatures on Oct. 5, 2020.

Chnina, 52, sent a series of messages to her contacts criticizing Paty, saying “this sick man” needs to be fired, and the address of the school in the Paris suburb of Conflans Saint-Honorine. In fact, Chnina's daughter had lied to her and had never attended the course in question.

Paty was giving a lecture commissioned by the Department of National Education on freedom of expression. He spoke about caricatures in this context, and said that students who do not wish to see them can temporarily leave the classroom.

An online campaign against Paty exploded, and 11 days after the lesson, Anzorov attacked the teacher with a knife on his way home, revealing the teacher's head on social media. The police later shot Anzorov as he approached them, armed.

Chnina is suspected of collaborating with a terrorist company by identifying the 47-year-old teacher with false information. The public prosecutor asked for a 10-year sentence

Her daughter was tried last year in juvenile court and given a suspended sentence of 18 months. Four other students at Paty's school were found guilty of involvement and given suspended sentences; the fifth, who revealed Paty to Anzorov in exchange for money, was given a term of 6 months with an electronic bracelet.

Abdelhakim Sefrioui, who presented himself as a spokesman for the French Imams even though he was fired from that role, is another key figure in the case. He filmed a video in front of the school with the student's father. He called the teacher a “criminal” several times and sought to pressure the school's management on social media. Prosecutors asked for a 12-year sentence.

Some of the defendants expressed remorse and claimed innocence before the verdict was handed down. They did not convince Paty's family.

“It's a really shocking thing for the family,” said lawyer Virginie Le Roy. “You get the feeling that those in the box are not willing to accept any responsibility. Apologies are useless, they won't bring Samuel back, but explanations are precious to us. But, unfortunately I have to do mixed testing. We still don't have many explanations for the facts.”