how Abdoullakh Anzorov fell into terrorism

Based on the elements provided by corroborating sources, BFMTV was able to reconstruct the process of radicalization of the man who assassinated Samuel Paty last Friday in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine

Six days after the assassination of Samuel Paty in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, the contours of the trajectory that led his murderer to Islamist fanaticism and then to terrorism appear more clearly this Thursday evening. BFMTV was thus able to reconstruct, thanks to elements collected from corroborating sources, the process of radicalization of Abdullakh Anzorov, a young Russian of Chechen origin aged 18.

Refusal to talk to women, rejection of music

While in police custody, the criminal’s family members dated his radicalization by at least six months. According to his relatives, Abdullakh Anzorov, who had become a proselyte, had begun to listen to extremist sermons and Islamic songs, gradually cutting himself off from his Chechen friends.

The future assassin had contacted them again on Wednesday, two days before the incident. They were thus heard in police custody by investigators, then indicted and placed in pre-trial detention. The Thursday before the attack, they spent the day with him, accompanying him to a cutlery shop in Rouen where Abdullakh Anzorov bought a knife which they claim he claimed to offer to his grandfather. The next day, the day of the incident, one of them drove him by car.

These two friends described as for them a more distant rocking. For them, their friend began to change more than a year ago, stopping listening to music, refusing to talk to women, going out to have fun, getting up early to join the mosque.

Fascination with jihad

Investigators also managed to shed light on the Islamist’s growing fascination with jihad. Between September 12 and 14, Abdoullakh Anzorov exchanges, in Russian, with an Instagram account located in the Idlib region of Syria. He learns about the status of the martyr in Islam, about thehijra (“hegira”, a word originally designating the departure of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina and referring by extension to the trip to a Muslim land). He explicitly indicates that he wants to “fight”.

On October 4, he wrote to two people via the Snapchat app: “There is no doubt that what is happening in Idlib is the real thing jihad (…) and the best current group to join is Hayat Tahir-Al-Cham.”

Social media escalation

The escalation can also be read through its publications on social networks. On June 24, a tweet published by his account @ tchetchene_270 implored Allah to strike China, which he describes as “the center of suitcase” (“suitcase“in Arabic means” disbeliever). This tweet was reported to the Pharos platform which noted, on September 11, that he selected as a Twitter banner the photo of an armed jihadist on the back of a camel.

In addition, investigators found in his mobile phone a photo, dated July 30, of Abdullakh Anzorov pointing his finger towards the sky, a posture often affected by the jihadists.

Investigators also succeeded in extracting from this examination new details about the planning of the assassination of the professor of history and geography. At 9:22 a.m. on Friday, Abdullakh Anzorov wrote a note, amended at 2:25 p.m., which would become the terrorist’s claim text on Twitter later. Finally, between 4:38 p.m. (which shows that the teacher has already been killed) and 4:59 p.m., he talks about his crime, again in Russian, to an Instagram account called dnevnik_idliba.

After having claimed responsibility for the crime on Twitter, with supporting images, he sends a screenshot to this interlocutor, as well as an audio message at 5 p.m. The latter then replies “Allahu akbar”. A few minutes after this exchange, Aboullakh Anzorov was put out of harm’s way by the police.