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The Pablo Picasso flat building in Bagneux where the 19-year-old Mathieu Roumi was attacked by six youths of the city.
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PARIS (EJP)---A Jewish teenager who was locked up and attacked by six youths in Bagneux, a Paris suburb, has left the city, Patrick Gaubert, president of Licra, the international league against racism and anti-Semitism, announced Wednesday.
The six youths have been detained for torturing the 19-year-old Mathieu Roumi ten ays ago during nine an a half hours by punching him, sexually humiliating him and writing "dirty Jew" and "dirty faggot" on his forehead.
The victim, who went alone to a meeting with the youths to try to settle an argument about a stolen mobile phone, was taunted for being Jewish and accused of being gay.
To terrify him, attackers allegedly made repeated references to Ilan Halimi, a young Parisian Jewish man who was kidnapped, tortured and killed in 2006 by the so-called « gang of barbarians » whose ringleader, Youssef Fofana, and his accomplices will stand trial for murder before this year.
Gaubert announced that Licra would be plaintiff in the file which is led by an examinating magistrate in Nanterre.
The family was very shocked and prefered to keep Mathieu aways from the city for the moment, he added..
He said the young man "has a Jewish name" but has no relation with the local Jewish community and "is not a practising Jew".
"We are concerned by the fact that Mathieu was the victim of a violence motivated by anti-Jewish hatred because of his Jewish-sounding name," said Sammy Ghozlan, head of an office monirtoring anti-Semitic acts in France.
A public prosecutor announced Wednesday that the six aggressors, aged 17 to 25, face charges of group violences motivated by a person’s "real or supposed race, religion or sexual orientation", acts of torture, blackmail and theft.
Richard Prasquier, head of CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish organisations, said that the attack suggests that "anti-Semitism is still deeply present in the country."
Anti-Semitism is a sensitive issue in France, where the 600,000-strong Jewish community is western Europe's largest.
The Bagneux City Hall said in a statement that officials were "shocked and outraged" by the attack.
