On the occasion of his speech for the commemoration ceremony of the Vél 'd'Hiv roundup, in Paris, Sunday July 16, Emmanuel Macron claimed that "all the clarity" be made on the death of Sarah Halimi. A very sensitive affair within the Jewish community, when this woman was killed in early April in Paris by one of her neighbors, to cries of" Allahu Akbar ! » A file also mentioned by the Israeli Prime Minister, Benyamin Netanyahu, just before the speech of the Head of State.

Mr. Macron's statement comes in the wake of the court's decision, Wednesday, July 12, not to retain the aggravating circumstance of anti-Semitism in this case. The suspect, Kobili T., 27 years old, interned in psychiatry since the facts, was indicted, but only for " voluntary homicide " without premeditation and "sequestration". A decision misunderstood by the Jewish community, today at the initiative of a vast support committee calling for the " truth ".

According to investigations carried out over the past four months, Sarah Halimi, former director of a nursery, was at home, in an HLM in the Belleville district, in the 11^e arrondissement of Paris, when the tragedy happened. Kobili T. was his downstairs neighbor. When he broke into her home in the middle of the night, he first beat her up. Then to the cries of" Allahu Akbar ! », mingled with insults and recitations of suras from the Koran, he threw her out of the window, throwing her into the courtyard of the building.

Incoherent remarks

The police were called by the neighborhood, worried about the screams of Kobili T. Especially since before entering Sarah Halimi's home, he violently burst into the home of other neighbors, a family of Malian origin. of which he was a friend, and whom he sequesters by making incoherent remarks. But confusion reigns. When the police arrive, Kobili T. fled by a balcony, it is from there that he tipped over to Mr.^me Halimi. They don't have time to save the retiree.

During a press conference, organized at the beginning of July, the lawyer for part of the victim's family, M^e Gilles-William Goldnadel, denounced the "abusive and instantaneous psychiatrization" of the suspect. “A way of denying anti-Semitism”, according to him. Denouncing " the inaction of the police, the lawyer also filed a complaint for " no assistance to the person in danger ".

Today, Mr. Kobili remains hospitalized. If the measure were lifted, he would be remanded in custody. His lawyer, Mr.^e Thomas Bidnic, for his part, assures that his client, questioned by the investigating magistrates, " contests any anti-Semitic motivation”.

This is not the first time that the anti-Semitic nature of a crime or misdemeanor has been the subject of divergent interpretations between justice, civil parties and political leaders. The most recent case concerns the so-called “Créteil” affair. The story of a couple violently attacked, kidnapped and raped – in the case of the young woman – at their home in December 2014 by a gang of young people looking for money and jewelry. “You are Jews, you have money”, their attackers had told them in particular.

Very quickly arriving on the scene, the Minister of the Interior at the time, Bernard Cazeneuve, immediately denounced the anti-Semitic nature of the tragedy, erecting the fight against anti-Semitism as a "national cause". Justice had first followed, indicting the alleged attackers for gang rape, armed robbery, kidnapping and extortion followed by violence "because of belonging to a religion". But in February, at the end of his investigation, the investigating magistrate had abandoned the aggravating circumstance of anti-Semitism. Abandonment from which he finally returned, in June, after new requisitions from the prosecution.