A 31-year-old man was sentenced to three years' imprisonment, including two years in prison with a committal warrant, for attacking a sixty-year-old wearing a kippah in front of a synagogue in Paris, we learned on Saturday from a judicial source. The attack took place on Friday March 1 around 5:30 p.m. rue des Orteaux (20th).
The man was found guilty of beating and causing the 62-year-old victim – who had lost
“brief consciousness”
– to fall, before fleeing. A witness also reported hearing the attacker say
“dirty Jew”
.
Death threats in 2022
The defendant, born in 1992 in Pointe-à-Pitre, was sentenced on Friday for
“violence resulting in ITT (total incapacity for work) less than or equal to eight days (six ITT days) due to religion”.
He was also convicted of making death threats in December 2022 towards a Jewish father. The investigation, initially closed without further action, was reopened following the events of 2024.
Arrested five days after the events, the man was to be tried in immediate appearance on March 8 but the hearing was postponed in order to remove doubts concerning the mental health of the accused, the various expert assessments carried out since his arrest having led to results divergent, and
“taking into account the comments made during the hearing”
, the president detailed during the hearing.
An “unspeakable act”
Two of the three expert opinions carried out as part of the investigation linked to the facts of 2022 and that of 2024 concluded that his judgment had been impaired, but this alteration was not accepted by the court, the AFP was told. defense lawyer Me Julia d'Avout d'Auerstaedt.
On March 1, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin denounced a
“new anti-Semitic attack”
and an
“unspeakable act”
.
French authorities have reported a sharp increase in anti-Semitic acts in the context of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas since the attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement in southern Israel on October 7.