French authorities face outrage at response to ‘anti-Semitic’ murder of Jewish woman

THE French authorities have been accused of sweeping an apparently antiSemitic murder under the rug, after a Muslim man savagely beat and killed an Orthodox Jew in Paris.

Sarah Halimi, 65, was killed at her home in the east of Paris in April and thrown off the third floor to the ground below. The suspect, Kobili Traore 27, a Malian Muslim, reportedly yelled Al- lahu akbar (God is greatest) during the attack. It is alleged he also said that his victim was “the devil” and called her a “whore”, using both French and Arabic slurs, reported Le Figaro newspaper.

Neighbours who witnessed the 4am attack said it was nothing short of “torture”.

“I was woken up by the sound of a person in pain. It was torture. I thought it was an animal or a baby at first, but then, when I opened the window, I saw it was a woman,” one witness told the paper. Witnesses reported that the attacker yelled out that Mrs Halimi was suicidal, before throwing her off the balcony to her death.

The suspected attacker, who was a downstairs neighbour to the victim, claimed insanity and is still yet to be tried. The case has prompted a backlash from France’s Jewish community, many of whom are outraged that French authorities did not immediately classify the murder as an act of terrorism. Police who were called to the scene during the attack have been criticised for not breaking in and potentially preventing the murder.

Mr Traore was arrested directly after the attack, and he has since spent time in prison and in psychiatric hospitals, but many in France are not satisfied with how the case has continued.

A legal decision over Mr Traore’s sanity is still pending, and due within the next week. Meanwhile, French authorities have treated the murder as an isolated incident, rather than a terror attack or a hate crime.

Emmanuel Macron, the president, said at a speech in July on the 75th anniversary of the Nazi round-up of Jews in Paris that the “judiciary must shed full light” on the case.

Jewish leaders maintain that the attack was a hate crime. They have also taken aim at the French press for fail- ing to report it immediately. They organised a rally in the area.

The victim’s family is also convinced that the attack was anti-Semitic. William Attal, 62, Mrs Halimi’s brother, told French media: “I want you to understand that the fight of this family is that people recognise the Islamist, anti-Semitic nature of the assassin, who massacred and killed a Jewish woman, whom he knew was a Jew and whom he knew was alone.”