French court convicts eight people for their role in teacher's beheading in Paris suburb

Seven men and a woman have been convicted in connection with Samuel Paty's beheading in a Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte Honorine.

As the killer was shot down by police shortly after the incident occurred four years ago, the trial went on for eight people who provided him support or played a role in a way.

The eight were sentenced to years ranging from three to 16.

Paty's murder was heavily led by social media posts that had falsely claimed the 47-year-old history and geography teacher showed obscene pictures of the founder of Islam, Prophet Muhammad, to his students during a class on free speech, BBC News reported.

The rumours also floated on the internet that Paty had asked 13-year-old Muslim students to leave the class before showing Prophet Muhammad's pictures.

Flared up by the fake claims, 18-year-old Russian Muslim extremist Abdoullakh Anzorov beheaded Paty at a secondary school in the suburb.

Eleven days after the class on free speech, Anzorov attacked Paty and showed the teacher's head on social media.

The rumour first started after a 13-year-old student lied about Paty followed by the viral claims on social media.

Brahim Chnina, the Muslim father of the 13-year-old, is one of the convicts. The 52-year-old has been sentenced to 13 years.

To prevent her father from discovering that she was suspended over studies, the 13-year-old cooked up a story about Paty accusing him of excluding her from the class so that the teacher could display "a photograph of the Prophet naked", The Guardian had reported.

Chnina had campaigned against Paty on social media and also took the assistance of radical Islam activist, Abdelhakim Sefrioui, who has been sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment.

Naim Boudaoud and Azim Epsirkhanov, the two friends of Abdoullakh Anzorov who were with the killer when he bought weapons, have been convicted to 16 years of imprisonment.