These cases keep on coming.
This was earlier in the year.
Relatives of Jeremy Cohen, a 31-year-old French Jew who died two months ago after being hit by a tram in the town of Bobigny, near Paris, said Monday that his death was not an accident, but the result of an antisemitic attack.
Initially, his death was reported as a “pedestrian being run over,” but video footage released by Cohen’s family on Monday showed the moments leading to his death and indicated that the incident could have been triggered by an assault.
In the video, Cohen is seen being attacked by several members of a large group before running away from the crowd and being hit by an incoming tram.
This was in May.
French authorities on Sunday arrested a Muslim resident of Lyon suspected of pushing his 90-year-old Jewish neighbor to his death. According to a report by the local Jewish newspaper Tribune Juive, René Hadjaj was pushed to his death from a 17th-story window in the residential building where he lived.
Now there’s a new case.
A Jewish man from Tunisia with family in Israel was murdered a week ago Sunday in the small French town of Seine-et-Marne (Longperrier).
The body of the victim, 34-year-old Eyal Haddad, was found in a wooded area on the land where he lived, on the northern edge of Chemin del al Gruerie, according to multiple reports in French media.
The murder was discovered when Haddad’s family in Be’er Sheva began to worry after not hearing from him for two days. The family called Haddad’s housemate – the suspected killer – who then turned himself in to the police and told them what he did and where to find the body.
According to the BNVCA, (Bureau National de Vigilance Contre L’Amtisemitisme – National Bureau for Vigilance Against Antisemitism) the suspected killer — Mohamed Deridi — told police investigators that he used an axe to murder his housemate.
Initially the suspect told investigators the victim owed him 100 euros, but later admitted that he murdered him because he was Jewish.
Since in France, if the attacker was smoking pot, he can be deemed not guilty by reason of insanity, as in the Sarah Halimi murder, Mohammed will have an easy out.
Three minutes later, a unit of the Anti-Crime Brigade (BAC) — who happened to be patrolling the area — took up position in front of Diara’s door.
They heard Kobili Traore chanting Muslim prayers and Koranic verses. Unsure about the situation and the potential threats to the family, they asked for reinforcements. Additional policemen arrived quickly. However, for some unclear reason, the BAC unit still refrained from breaking in.
In the meantime, Kobili Traore put on new clothes and climbed out of the window to reach Sarah Halimi’s apartment, which was at the same level as Diara Traore’s.
He allegedly assaulted the Jewish woman and hit her mercilessly. From time to time he resumed Koranic recitation. Many neighbours, woken by the old woman’s screams or the assaulter’s religious chanting, called the police
Some gave details about the exact location of the assault, the attacker’s identity, the fact he vilified his victim as a Jewish person and as “a Satan” while hitting her, or even — as far as the Muslim neighbours were concerned — the Koranic portions he chanted.
Yet the police still failed to storm Sarah Halimi’s apartment and rescue her. Eventually, Kobili Traore is claimed to have shouted that the woman was “mad and about to commit suicide”, and threw her out of the window.
He had time enough to climb back to Diara Traore’s apartment where he finally was arrested. His hands were covered in blood. There was blood everywhere in his victim’s apartment.
And on the hands of the authorities.
A Muslim man who killed his Jewish neighbor in Paris while shouting about Allah is probably not criminally responsible for his actions because he had smoked marijuana beforehand, a French judge has ruled.
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