France court jails two teens over rape of Jewish girl
The crime, when both were 13, shocked France's Jewish community at a time of rising antisemitic attacks.
The presiding judge justified the harsh sentence against the two boys as being due to their "worrying" personalities, "the immense social disturbance" they caused to society, and the crime being committed on religious grounds.
READ ALSO:
France boosts security, including around Jewish, US sites
She undoubtedly "would not have been raped if she had not been Jewish", the judge said at a juvenile court in Nanterre, a suburb of western Paris.
A third boy, an ex-boyfriend of the girl who was also aged 12 at the time, was found guilty of being complicit in the crime but not sentenced to jail due to his young age.
The court ordered that he be placed in the foster system and followed by professionals for five years.
The girl told police she was approached by the three boys on June 15, 2024, while in a park near her home in the northwestern Paris suburb of Courbevoie, close to the La Defense financial district.
She told investigators she was dragged into an abandoned daycare centre where the suspects beat her and "forced" her to have sex "while uttering death threats and antisemitic remarks".
She said the boys had called her a "dirty Jew" and asked her questions about "her Jewish religion" and Israel.
Advertisement
The rape was filmed by one boy, and another threatened to kill the girl if she reported the ordeal to authorities, police sources said.
The attack had shocked the Jewish community in France and was unanimously condemned by politicians.
At the time, President Emmanuel Macron had denounced the "scourge" of antisemitism.
Several demonstrations in support of the victim were held in Paris and in Courbevoie.
Reported antisemitic acts in France surged from 436 in 2022 to 1,676 in 2023, before dipping slightly to 1,570 last year, according to the interior ministry.
Jewish groups have said that the number of such attacks rose sharply following the attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, which was followed by Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip and aid blockade.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
5 hours ago
- France 24
Tens of thousands rally in Dutch Gaza protest
Rights groups such as Amnesty International and Oxfam organised the demonstration through the city to the International Court of Justice, creating a so-called "red line". Many waving Palestinian flags and some chanting "Stop the Genocide", the demonstrators turned a central park in the city into a sea of red on a sunny afternoon. Protesters brandished banners reading "Don't look away, do something", "Stop Dutch complicity", and "Be silent when kids sleep, not when they die". Organisers urged the Dutch government -- which collapsed on June 3 after a far-right party pulled out of a fragile coalition -- to do more to rein in Israel. "People in Gaza cannot wait and the Netherlands has a duty to do everything it can to stop the genocide," they said in their call to action. Dodo Van Der Sluis, a 67-year-old pensioner, told AFP: "It has to stop. Enough is enough. I can't take it anymore." "I'm here because I think it's maybe the only thing you can do now as a Dutch citizen, but it's something you have to do," she added. A previous protest in The Hague on May 18 drew more than 100,000 people, according to organisers, who described it as the country's largest demo in 20 years. Police did not give an estimate for that demonstration. The Gaza war was sparked by the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas. That assault resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures. The militants also took 251 hostages, of whom 54 are still thought to be held in Gaza, including 32 the Israeli military has said are dead. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 55,207 people, the majority of them civilians. The United Nations considers the figures reliable. The International Court of Justice is currently weighing a case brought by South Africa against Israel, arguing its actions in Gaza breach the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. Israel strongly rejects the accusations.
France 24
8 hours ago
- France 24
Ex-president Sarkozy stripped of France's top honour after conviction
The right-winger has been beset by legal problems since he was defeated in the 2012 presidential election after serving one five-year term. Sarkozy, 70, had been wearing an electronic ankle tag until last month after France's highest appeals court upheld his conviction last December of trying to illegally secure favours from a judge. According to the code of the Legion of Honour, France's top state award, any person definitively sentenced to a term in prison equal to or greater than one year is excluded from the order. But French President Emmanuel Macron had argued against such a move in April, saying that scandal-plagued Sarkozy had been elected and it was "very important that former presidents are respected". Despite his legal problems, Sarkozy remains an influential figure on the right and is known to regularly socialise with the head of state. Sarkozy becomes the second former head of state to be stripped of the award after Nazi collaborator Philippe Petain, who was convicted in August 1945 for high treason and conspiring with the enemy. Others to have been stripped of the honour include former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, drug cheat cyclist Lance Armstrong and movie mogul Harvey Weinstein whose conduct with women sparked the #MeToo movement against sexual violence. Sarkozy, whose electronic tag was removed this month, is using his last remaining legal avenue, an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, to defend himself against the conviction. Sarkozy's lawyer Patrice Spinosi said the former president had "taken note" of the decision to strip him of the Legion of Honour, but stressed that the petition lodged with the ECHR was "still pending". Any ECHR ruling against France would "imply reviewing the criminal conviction against (Sarkozy) as well as his exclusion from the order of the Legion of Honour", Spinosi said. Sarkozy is currently on trial in a separate case on charges of accepting illegal campaign financing in an alleged pact with late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi. The court is to issue a verdict in September with prosecutors asking for a seven-year prison term for Sarkozy, who denies the charges.
Local France
a day ago
- Local France
France court jails two teens over rape of Jewish girl
The crime, when both were 13, shocked France's Jewish community at a time of rising antisemitic attacks. The presiding judge justified the harsh sentence against the two boys as being due to their "worrying" personalities, "the immense social disturbance" they caused to society, and the crime being committed on religious grounds. READ ALSO: France boosts security, including around Jewish, US sites She undoubtedly "would not have been raped if she had not been Jewish", the judge said at a juvenile court in Nanterre, a suburb of western Paris. A third boy, an ex-boyfriend of the girl who was also aged 12 at the time, was found guilty of being complicit in the crime but not sentenced to jail due to his young age. The court ordered that he be placed in the foster system and followed by professionals for five years. The girl told police she was approached by the three boys on June 15, 2024, while in a park near her home in the northwestern Paris suburb of Courbevoie, close to the La Defense financial district. She told investigators she was dragged into an abandoned daycare centre where the suspects beat her and "forced" her to have sex "while uttering death threats and antisemitic remarks". She said the boys had called her a "dirty Jew" and asked her questions about "her Jewish religion" and Israel. Advertisement The rape was filmed by one boy, and another threatened to kill the girl if she reported the ordeal to authorities, police sources said. The attack had shocked the Jewish community in France and was unanimously condemned by politicians. At the time, President Emmanuel Macron had denounced the "scourge" of antisemitism. Several demonstrations in support of the victim were held in Paris and in Courbevoie. Reported antisemitic acts in France surged from 436 in 2022 to 1,676 in 2023, before dipping slightly to 1,570 last year, according to the interior ministry. Jewish groups have said that the number of such attacks rose sharply following the attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, which was followed by Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip and aid blockade.
