Conflans-Sainte-Honorine attack: what the investigation reveals

Abdoullakh Abouyezidevitch Anzonov’s mad race ended on Friday in a suburban street in Eragny (Val-d’Oise). The 18-year-old young Russian of Chechen origin, who had just beheaded with a 35-centimeter kitchen knife the history teacher of a college in the nearby town of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines), was killed by police officers from the anti-crime squad who he had shot with an airsoft gun. On Saturday evening again, ten people were in police custody as part of the flagrant investigation opened by the national anti-terrorism prosecutor, Jean-François Ricard. Among them were the grandfather, the parents and one of the five brothers – minor – of the terrorist, but also a figure of Islamism on file S (considered radicalized) and his wife, the father of a pupil of the murdered teacher, two acquaintances of Anzonov, and a witness to the crime scene whose role remains to be clarified.

The investigations entrusted to the judicial police and the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) are only just beginning. But they have already made it possible to trace the route of this terrorist until then unknown to the intelligence services and never convicted, even if he had been blamed for damage to public property and violence in meetings.

The attacker allegedly asked students to identify the teacher

Anzonov, who resided with his family in Évreux (Eure), was driven to the scene of the crime by a relative who spontaneously presented himself to the police station on Friday, saying he knew nothing of the intentions of his passenger. Another of his friends, also heard, would have accompanied him during the purchase of the dagger found on his corpse, distinct from the knife used against his victim. The Chechen prowled around the Bois-d’Aulne college. He would have asked, without any aggression, several students to identify the teacher targeted.

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On leaving the latter, shortly before 5 p.m., he allegedly followed him and, aside, stabbed several times in the abdomen before cutting off his head. He immediately claimed responsibility for the crime on his Twitter account, criticizing Emmanuel Macron and accompanying his message with a macabre photo of his victim.

Why did he attack Samuel Paty, a 47-year-old teacher, father of a child? According to sources close to the investigation, his entourage had noticed changes in his behavior. For several days, he had only been talking about that: videos on the Internet in which his future victim was denounced for showing his fourth year students on October 7 caricatures of the prophet Muhammad published in Charlie Hebdo, during a class in civic education devoted to freedom of expression. These are the images that would have triggered the terrible passage to the act.

The Course of Discord

In spite of the precautions taken – the professor had suggested to the college students who might be shocked to leave the room – this course had sparked controversy. Several parents of students had expressed their anger on social networks. Then calm had returned after the explanations of the main data given to almost all of them. The father of a young girl, however, was not satisfied, adding that she had to attend this course.

As early as October 7, he had written several messages on Facebook to stigmatize the depiction of a naked man designated as the Prophet, without himself specifying that it was a caricature. The next day, he went to college with another adult to demand the teacher’s dismissal from the principal, and then posted a video in which he called Samuel Paty a “thug.”

He called for mobilization, then gave the name of the teacher and the address of the college, and invited people to write to “get this patient fired”. The same day, he filed a complaint against him at the police station for disseminating pornographic images. An investigation was opened and the professor heard on October 12. He himself then brought a libel action, giving the police a copy of his course. According to him, the young girl at the origin of the complaint was not present that morning.

Videos made by a well-known figure in the Islamist sphere

On October 13, a new video was released on the Internet. The accusing student gave his testimony to the man who had accompanied his father to the principal. The investigation very quickly made it possible to identify in this improvised cameraman a well-known character in the Islamist sphere. Fiché S, Abdelhakim Sefrioui is close to Hamas, a Palestinian fundamentalist movement. He thus created the Cheikh Yassine Collective, named after the religious leader of Hamas killed in 2004 by the Israeli army.

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He had also been one of the spearheads of the demonstrations against the Imam of Drancy (Seine-Saint-Denis) Hassen Chalghoumi, who had good relations with the Jewish community. Quick to statements with anti-Semitic overtones, slayer of Islamophobia, he had again in 2006 participated in the project of candidacy for the presidential election of Dieudonné, which made anti-Semitism a trademark.

What we don’t know yet

Several questions remained unresolved Saturday evening. First, why had justice forced the state in 2011 to grant refugee status to the Anzonov family, as Le Point reveals? After a long instruction, the administration refused to stay in France. But the National Court of Asylum had overturned this decision. Since March, Abdullakh Anzonov had therefore become, for ten years, a regular adult.

And most importantly, had the threat to Samuel Paty been taken seriously? One week before the teacher’s murder, a note from a territorial intelligence (RT) police officer had recorded the series of incidents at Bois-d’Aulne College. The official had noticed Sefrioui’s presence, but he was considered more of an agitator than a terrorist.

The tension also seemed to have subsided in the school. Is this the reason why the RT, responsible in particular for spotting weak signals in terms of Islamist radicalization, was content to report a school incident? The service feared the holding of demonstrations in front of the college of Bois-d’Aulne. Not the irruption of a radicalized 18-year-old boy armed with a knife.