Thousands protest in Paris to denounce court ruling that killer of Jewish woman can't stand trial
Thousands gathered across France on Sunday to protest a top court’s ruling that a man who murdered his Jewish neighbour in 2017 could not stand trial because he was “in a delirious state” when he committed the crime after consuming cannabis.
In its April 14 ruling, France’s Court of Cassation, the country’s highest appeals court, noted that while the murder had components of anti-Semitism, Kobili Traoré could not stand trial for the murder of Sarah Halimi, citing a part of the French penal code which states that a person cannot be criminally responsible “if suffering, at the time of the event, from psychic or neuropsychic disturbance that has eliminated all discernment or control” over the acts they are committing.
Carrying signs that read “Justice for Sarah” and “Change the law,” demonstrators in Paris, Marseille, Nice and other cities demanded a swift reform to France’s penal code so that perpetrators like Traoré could still be held accountable. Traoré admitted to the murder and is currently in a psychiatric institution.
“The clamour has risen and hope has returned. That hope is all of you here,” Halimi’s brother William Attal told a group of several thousand protestors who had gathered at the Place Trocadero in southwest Paris. Demonstrators also gathered outside the French Embassies in London and Tel Aviv.
Shortly before the demonstrations on Sunday, France’s Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said he would present a bill before parliament in May to tighten the law. In an interview with French paper Le Figaro, President Emmanuel Macron also said he supported the change. “Deciding to take narcotics and then ‘going mad’ should not, in my view, remove your criminal responsibility,” Macron said.
Traoré was 27 years old in the spring of 2017 when, allegedly disturbed by Halimi’s mezuzah - a small scroll that some Jewish households pin next to the door - he stormed into the 65-year-old retired doctor’s apartment, violently beat her, then threw her off her third floor balcony.
During the killing, neighbours also reported hearing Traoré say “Allahu Akbar” - God is great in Arabic - and “I murdered the devil.”
France’s Jewish community says the Halimi verdict has made them feel less safe living in France.
Criticising the ruling, Francis Kalifat, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions, told a French radio station that “[the court] could have taken a courageous decision, that of contributing to a change in the law... Unfortunately, they lacked the courage to do so.”
In an initial verdict last year, a lower court stated the case had anti-Semitic elements but rejected a trial. Halimi’s family appealed the case, which then went to the Court of Cassation which upheld the initial ruling. Halimi’s family say they are also calling for a trial in Israel.
“Israeli criminal law states that when the victim is Jewish and the crime is anti-Semitic, the Israeli justice system can take on such a case,” Francis Szpiner, one of the family’s lawyers told Le Monde.
