The Paris Special Assize Court has ruled that Laurent Nuñez will be re-examined in the appeal trial for the murder of Samuel Paty, following the controversy sparked by his written testimony. The presiding judge indicated that the Minister of the Interior had sent him an email from his personal address on Sunday evening, which violates the formalities stipulated by the Code of Criminal Procedure.
In a ruling issued Monday, the court decided that the same questions would be put to Laurent Nuñez again by a senior judge. The answers must be submitted before Wednesday morning to be read at the hearing. This decision comes after his testimony, read on Friday, provoked strong reactions from the parties involved.
A testimony at the heart of the debates
Laurent Nuñez, the former national intelligence coordinator at the Élysée Palace at the time of the events, had answered questions concerning the online campaign of denunciation targeting Samuel Paty. When asked about publicly labeling someone as having offended Islam, he stated that this did not "necessarily" expose them to a risk of assassination.
This statement was welcomed by the defense of Abdelhakim Sefrioui, who was on trial for contributing, along with a parent of a student, to the hate campaign that preceded the murder of the teacher on October 16, 2020. In the first instance, Sefrioui was sentenced to 15 years in prison for terrorist conspiracy, the court having found a causal link between the online campaign and the attack.
Following the controversy, the minister's entourage clarified that he did not dispute the connection and did not intend to distance himself from the accusation. At the hearing, the public prosecutor emphasized that the court was seized to "apply the law," stating that Laurent Nuñez wished to clarify the interpretation of his remarks.
