The appeal trial for the assassination of Samuel Paty at the Paris Special Assize Court is coming to an end. This Saturday, February 28, 2026, the lawyers of the two accused Ebroïcians, Naïm Boudaoud and Azim Epsirkhanov, friends of the killer, Abdoullakh Anzorov pleaded for acquittal. The verdict is expected on Monday.
For several hours, the defense lawyers tried to convince the judges that Naïm Boudaoud and Azim Epsirkhanov knew nothing about the terrorist project of their friend Abdoullakh Anzorov. The latter beheaded the history-geography professor, Samuel Paty on October 16, 2020 in Éragny-sur-Oise (Val-d’Oise).
The day before, Friday February 27, 2026, the Attorney General requested 16 years in prison against Azim Epsirkhanov, with the obligation to leave French territory, and 16 years also against Naïm Boudaoud, accompanied by socio-judicial monitoring.
The prosecution also requested 20 years of criminal imprisonment against Brahim Chnina, 54, and Abdelhakim Sefrioui, 66, the two authors of the hate campaign which targeted the history and geography professor. More severe requisitions than during the trial at first instance. The two perpetrators were sentenced to 13 and 15 years in prison for their ten-day cabal.
Me Sarah Valduriez, lawyer for the accused Azim Epsirkhanov, but also Me Martin Mechin and Me Hiba Rizkallah, lawyers for Naïm Boudaoud, pleaded for the acquittal of their clients. The objective also for them is to obtain a reclassification of the facts. The court upheld the criminal association, they for their part pleaded the terrorist association.
There is still no proof that Naïm Boudaoud could have knowledge of the terrorist project, nor even a remote conscience.
Me Martin Mechin, lawyer for Naïm Boudaoud
As a preamble to her pleading, Me Sarah Valduriez, lawyer for Azim Epsirkhanov, asked the court to “take this matter cold, away from emotion“. Very quickly, she explains that Azim Epsirkhanov and Abdoullakh Anzorov did not have much in common. According to her, nothing in the file allows us to assert that Azim shared jihadist ideology.
Me Sarah Valduriez insists on the fact that in Azim Epsirkhanov’s phone, no internet search of a religious nature or on Samuel Paty was found. She also recalls that the knife purchased in Rouen by Azim, Naïm and Abdoullakh is not the murder weapon.
Azim is the opposite of Anzorov, he has a French partner, he is totally disinterested in current affairs and religion. He is not radicalized at all. He drinks, he goes out.
Me Sarah Valduriez, avocate d’Azim Epsirkhanov
“To suspect is not to prove” also insisted Azim Epsirkhanov’s lawyer, recalling that the latter was no longer close to the terrorist since 2019, that they only saw each other 4 times in 2020 and that Abdoullakh Anzarov did not know where Azim Epsirkhanov lived.
It was then Me Hiba Rizkallah who defended Naïm Boudaoud: “We are told of a great friendship, of a friendly, ideological fusion between the two, but Anzorov did not even know where Naïm lived, he never set foot in his home.“
Defense lawyers insisted on the lack of evidence in the case to assert that the two Ebroïcians had knowledge of the terrorist project.
However, a few days before the murder of Samuel Paty, Azim, Naim and Abdoullakh met in Rouen to buy a knife. They also watch several videos: on the Islamic caliphate, verses from the Koran, the 2015 attacks or even the video of Brahim Chnina, the father of the schoolgirl who sparked the controversy around Samuel Paty.
The general counsel believes that they were necessarily aware of the project because they attended Anzorov before, because they accompanied him, but these are hypotheses which are not based on any conclusive evidence in the file.
Me Martin Mechin, lawyer for Naïm Boudaoud.
Naïm Boudaoud was also the one who took the terrorist, Abdoullakh Anzorov, by car, not far from the college where the history-geography professor taught, in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines).
Unlike the first trial, the attorneys general requested the expulsion from the territory for Azim, originally from Russia, and two-thirds security for the sentences that will be handed down.
Sentenced at first instance to sixteen years of criminal imprisonment, Naïm Boudaoud and Azim Epsirkhanov face life imprisonment. The verdict is expected Monday during the day.
With Véronique Arnould and Dounia Sirri