French President Emanuel Macron on Sunday expressed his support for the country’s Jewish community and its efforts to prosecute Sarah Halimi’s killer, following a ruling by France’s highest court that Kobili Traore was not criminally responsible. the cause of marijuana smoking.
And he said he would seek a change in the laws to prevent such a case from happening again.
In a rare and controversial critique of the French justice system, Macron said drug use and “insanity” should not take criminal responsibility.
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After criticizing the insanity of a lower court in January last year, drawing a strong response from top magistrates in the country, Macron on Sunday voiced support for the battle to bring Traore to trial for murder.
“It is not for me to comment on a court decision, but I would like to express to the family, relatives of the victim and all our Jewish citizens who were waiting for a trial, my warm support and the determination of the Republic to protect them,” Macron told Le Figaro .
Macron said that France “does not judge sick citizens, we treat them … But to decide to use drugs and then” go crazy “should not, in my opinion, take criminal responsibility.”
He added: “I would like the Minister of Justice [Eric Dupond-Moretti] to submit an amendment to the law as soon as possible ”.
Sarah Halimi, a 60-year-old Orthodox Jew, died in 2017 after being pushed out the window of her Paris apartment by neighbor Traore, who shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great” in Arabic).
However, in a decision on Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Appeal of the Court of Cassation upheld the judgments of the lower courts, according to which Traore could not be tried because he was too high in marijuana to be criminally responsible for his actions.
Traore, a heavy pot smoker, has been in psychiatric care since Halimi’s death. The court said he committed the murder after succumbing to a “delusional attack” and was therefore not responsible for his actions.
Sarah Halimi was beaten before being thrown from the roof of her apartment building in Paris in April 2017. (Kindness of the Halimi family)
An appellate court ruled that Traore, now 30, had an anti-Semitic bias and that the killing was partly linked to it. But he also accepted the defense’s claims that Traore was too old to be tried for his actions and was placed in a psychiatric unit.
Macron previously said there was a “need for a trial” even though a judge ruled then that there was no criminal liability.
The court’s decision, which means Traore cannot be tried in any French court, has angered anti-racist groups who say the verdict puts Jews at risk.
Storing the debate over a new strain of anti-Semitism among radicalized Muslim youth in predominantly immigrant neighborhoods, the management of Halimi’s killing was an important event for many French Jews, who say it highlights the French state’s failures in dealing with anti-Semitism.
About 1,000 members of the Jewish community in France gathered outside Sarah Halimi’s house in Paris to commemorate her alleged anti-Semitic murder, April 9, 2017. (Screenshot: 0404 Video)
“This is an additional drama that adds to this tragedy,” the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA) said after the ruling.
“From now on, in our country, you can torture and kill Jews with complete impunity,” added Francis Kalifat, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF).
The director of international relations at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Shimon Samuels, called the decision a “devastating blow”, which, he said, “potentially sets a precedent for all criminals who hate to simply claim madness or decide to smoke, to snort or inject drugs or even drink before committing their crimes ”.
French Jews have been repeatedly targeted by jihadists in recent years, especially in 2012, when an Islamist gun shot three children and a teacher at a Jewish school in the south of Toulouse and in 2015, when a pro-Islamic radical was fired. shot. four people at a Jewish supermarket in Paris.
Following Wednesday’s verdict, lawyers representing Halimi’s family said they intend to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
“It’s a bad message for French Jewish citizens,” said Halimi’s brother’s lawyer, Muriel Ouaknine Melki.
