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Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin with France's chief rabbi Joseph Sitruk at a Jewish rally in Paris last year
Photo: AFP Copyright 2006
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France's Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin told French Jewish leaders at a dinner Monday night in Paris that "all light has to be shed" on the odious and brutal murder of Ilan Halimi last week.
He added that the judge investigating on the gang that kidnapped tortured and murdered the young phone salesman decided to retain the thesis of a racist crime.
Villepin had been asked outright by Roger Cukierman, president of France’s umbrella group of Jewish organisations, CRIF, whether the 23-year-old Halimi had died "because he was a Jew."
“Is Ilan dead because he is Jewish? Mister Prime Minister you owe the truth to the country,” Cukierman asked.
“We owe the truth to Ilan’s family. We owe you the truth. We owe the truth to all French citizens,” Villepin said during the annual dinner of the CRIF attended by France’s main political, social and religious leaders.
Earlier, French Justice Minister Pascal Clement, speaking to reporters outside the CRIF meeting, confirmed investigators had alleged "aggravated circumstances of anti-Semitism.”
Clement said one of the suspects had made it clear he attacked had Ilan Halimi "because he was Jewish, and Jews are rich".
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Roger Cukierman (L), President of the umbrella group of Jewish organisations, CRIF, with Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe.
Photo: CRIF |
Halimi’s abduction has sent a shockwave through France’s Jewish community, since Halimi and several other targets were Jewish.
Police found Ilan Halimi naked, handcuffed and covered with burn and torture marks on February 13 near a suburban train station in Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois, in the Essonne region, south of Paris, three weeks after having been kidnapped by a dangerous gang.
He died on the way to a hospital, officials said.
“I want to tell Ilan’s family that all my thoughts go to them. I want them to know that we are going to do all what we can to arrest the authors of this barbarous crime and bring them to justice,” the Prime minister said.
“Allow me to convey tonight a message to Ilan Halimi’s family and tell them how much I share their sorrow,” Villepin added.
French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who attended the dinner, announced that he will soon meet with Ilan Halimi’s family and with the CRIF leaders.
French Jews shocked
French Jewry, shocked by the attack against Ilan Halimi, was waiting for a determined stand from CRIF.
The possibility that the attack may have been anti-Semitic has widely spread in the community which is asking for clear answers and stands from community and national officials.
An uneasy feeling has been growing in the community since the body of Ilan Halimi was discovered last week. Several facts seem to confirm that the victim’s Jewish identity played a role in the attack and the way it ended.
The fact that the gang targeted several Jews is only one of the elements that gave credit to the racist attack theory, the family’s testimony led to others.
The Halimy family said that when it told the gang that it did not have the 500,000 euros it requested, the kidnappers replied that the family should go to the synagogue and get the money. Ilan’s family told EJP that kidnappers read verses from the Koran.
National French media eluded these elements, judging at times that they were too sensitive.
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Ilan Halimi
Photo: Halimi Family |
The Jewish umbrella group opted for prudence in its first reactions, asking from Jews to stay calm and wait for progress in the police investigation.
But these first reactions from the CRIF angered many Jews who asked for a firmer stand.
More than 1,200 Jews marched spontaneously on Sunday to Ilan’s phone store in Paris and asked for the truth and for firmer stands from government officials.
“I’m revolted by the CRIF, these so-called leaders do not represent me!” said Nicole, one of the demonstrators.
“I can’t sleep since they’ve discovered Ilan. I just keep on crying.” said another marcher, Lea, reflecting a growing feeling among Jews that France doesn't protect them and that the institutions are failing.
In his speech at the CRIF dinner, Roger Cukierman stressed that the number of anti-Semitic assaults perpetrated in France fell by 46% in 2005 compare to 2004.
“This evolution does not mean that the roots of evil have disappeared,” said Cukierman. “The level of anti-Semitic acts is seven times higher than six years ago.”
Meanwhile, Jewish organisations have issued a call for another demonstration next Sunday in the city of Bagneux, in the Paris suburbs, where Ilan Halimi was detained and tortured during three weeks.
7 people in custody but brain still at large
Legal and political sources said that the investigating magistrate was
looking into the possibility that seven people -- six men and a woman -- in custody in connection with the offence could face aggravated charges of being motivated by religious hatred in the commission of the crime.
They were told Monday they face prosecution.
But whether the religious hatred charge will eventually be brought will
depend on the statements of the suspects, who face prosecution for criminal conspiracy to kidnap and detain and for premeditated murder.
Halimi disappeared in late January after agreeing to a date with an unknown woman who approached him at his workplace, a telephone store in central Paris.
Mobile phone text messages and emails showing pictures of the young man, bound and blindfolded, were sent to his family along with demands for a 450,000 euros ransom.
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Yussef Fofana, the suspected kidnapping and murder mastermind
Photo: French Police |
Police say that they have identified six other people targeted by the gang, whose chief, the 26-yar-old black Muslim Yussef Fofana, nicknamed "the brain of barbarians", is on the run with some of his accomplices.
According to informed sources, he may have left France for Ivory Coast, his native country.
