French Court announces retrial in Halimi case

By ABE SELIG

Fourteen members of the self-proclaimed "Barbarians" gang will be retried in Paris for their role in the killing of Ilan Halimi, a French-Jewish cell phone salesman who was kidnapped, tortured and found dying near a railroad track south of Paris in February 2006.

All 27 members of the gang were sentenced in the case on Friday, but in a swift turn-around, the office of the prosecutor, Jean-Claude Marin, agreed to ask the Court of Appeals to seek longer sentences than those originally handed out, after Justice Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie called some of the sentences too lenient.

The gang's leader, a 28 year-old French national born to immigrants from the Ivory Coast named Youssouf Fofana, however, will not be among those facing a retrial. Fofana, who was the only defendant convicted of murder, was sentenced to a maximum sentence of life in prison on Friday, without the possibility of parole for 22 years.

Two of Fofana's accomplices also received heavy sentences of 15 and 18 years behind bars, but many of the defendants were given lighter terms and two were acquitted altogether.

Others received six-month suspended sentences, and the young woman who was used as bait to lure Halimi to his captors received a sentence of 9 years in prison, despite the prosecutor's request for 10 to 12 years.

Alliot-Marie and the prosecutor's calls for a retrial were in part a response to criticism from the Halimi family's lawyer and a number of French Jewish associations, which had criticized some of the sentences as too light, given the sheer brutality and anti-Semitic nature of the crime.

Fofana had been quoted in 2006 as saying he wanted to kidnap a Jew because "they had money", and when the trial began at the end of April, Fofana yelled "Alla hu akbar!" upon entering the courtroom, before giving his name during formal questioning as "Arabs African, Salafist revolt, barbarian army".

The trial itself also brought tensions between French Jews and Muslims to the hilt, and saw the outbreak of street brawls and other sporadic acts of violence between the two groups during the two-months of proceedings.

While many within the Parisian Jewish community were encouraged by the announcement of a retrial - hundreds of demonstrators marched through Paris on Monday night, carrying portraits of Halimi and shouting, "Justice for Ilan!" Some French jurists protested the move, accusing Alliot-Marie of bowing to political pressure.

Halimi was 23 years old when he disappeared in 2006, after going on a date with a girl he had met at his workplace.

The girl, who was 17 at the time, led Halimi to an empty apartment where he was attacked by Fofana and his accomplices.

Throughout 24 days of brutal torture, Halimi was kept bound to a chair in the basement while the gang tried to extort a ransom of 450,000 euros from his family.

When it became apparent that the family could not pay, Fofana doused Halimi in alcohol, stabbed him, set him on fire and dumped his naked body by a railway track.

Halimi died on his way to hospital.

Source: Jerusalem Post

Youssouf Fofana
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Gang boss jailed for torturing French Jew to death

By Thierry Leveque in Paris | July 11

THE leader of a group that called itself a "gang of barbarians" was sentenced to life imprisonment by a French court for kidnapping and torturing a young Jewish man for more than three weeks before leaving him to die.

The gang abducted 23-year-old Ilan Halimi in 2006, unsuccessfully tried to extort a ransom for their captive, tortured him until he was close to death and then left him near a train station. He died shortly after he was found.

The case shocked France and turned a spotlight on anti-Semitic violence in the poor, multi-ethnic suburbs around many big French cities.

Amid tight courtroom security, Youssouf Fofana, the gang's leader, who admitted killing Mr Halimi, was sentenced to life imprisonment, the maximum penalty under French law, with a minimum period in jail of 22 years.

Twenty-four other gang members were handed sentences ranging from six months suspended to 18 years in prison. Two were acquitted.

"I am pleased that the Paris court of assizes has recognised the anti-Semitic character of this crime," Francis Szpiner, a lawyer for Halimi's family said outside the courtroom.

"It was because he was Jewish that Ilan Halimi was killed and tortured. No one can challenge this judicial truth."

However he added that he was disappointed at what he said were lenient sentences handed to some of Fofana's accomplices and asked the Justice Ministry to seek an appeal.

Aside from the horrific details of the murder itself, the case attracted wide attention because of what it seemed to suggest about racial tensions and anti-Semitism in France. Many in the Jewish community say that anti-Semitic aggression among French youths of Arab and African origin has been on the rise in recent years, exacerbated by anger over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

According to several members of the gang, Mr Halimi was targeted because he was Jewish and was therefore believed to have money.

The trial, which lasted for more than two months, was held largely behind closed doors after clashes at the start of the hearing between radical Jewish militants and witnesses and relatives of some of the accused.

Fofana, a 28 year-old of Ivoirian origin, expressed no remorse and expressed defiance throughout the trial. On various occasions, he smirked at Hamili's relatives, shouted "Allahu Akbar!" ("God is greatest!) and at one point threw shoes at lawyers.

He gave his date of birth as February 13, 2006, in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, the date and place of Mr Halimi's death and bombarded the magistrates investigating the case with letters full of anti-Semitic insults.

Among the 26 other defendants were young men accused of taking part in the abduction and guarding of the captive, and a girl who is alleged to have lured Mr Halimi into the Paris suburb of Sceaux where he was kidnapped.

Source: The Australian

Youssouf Fofana
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Islamonazi Homemade Concentration Camp

By Pamela Geller

The abduction and murder in Paris of a young Jewish man by a gang of Muslim immigrants calling themselves the Barbarians shocked the whole of France in 2006. But now that the accused are on trial - silence.

A French judge has ordered the latest issue of the magazine Choc ("shock") removed from the shelves. The cover showed a man with duct tape completely covering his head, except for a small opening around his nostrils. His nose is bloody. His hands are also bound with duct tape.

It was a photo of Ilan Halimi, the 23-year-old Parisian Jew who was kidnapped and tortured for 24 days by the Barbarians. His captors took the picture and sent it to his family. A lawyer for Halimi's family had complained about the magazine, but Choc's editor-in-chief Paul Payan responded: "Of course, we understand the anguish of the parents and, of course, we share their anguish.... But what's so harrowing is not the publication of this photo. What's harrowing is what it represents, what happened, the reality behind it."

And it gets worse. The New York Times reported last week that "in the two and a half weeks since 27 people went on trial [in Paris] for the brutal 2006 kidnapping, torture and killing of a young Jewish man, little has filtered out about the proceedings." Worse still, the little that has emerged indicates that French government and law enforcement have done everything in their power to obscure the Islamic Jew-hatred that led these Muslims to commit this crime. Read more ...

Source: Israel National News

Torturers and murderers of Ilan Halimi
Latest recipients of The Face of Evil Award



What a perfect case to re-institute death penalty in the E.U.