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The Identikit image of the woman suspected of "baiting" Halimi.
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Youssef Fofana, a suspect and the gang leader.
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners February 21, 2006 |
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French authorities suspect that anti-Semitism was a motive in the kidnapping, gruesome torture and murder of a young Jewish man by a violent gang.
23-year-old Ilan Halimi was found last Monday tied to a tree, naked, wounded, handcuffed, gagged and covered with burn and cut marks on 80 percent of his body. Authorities found Halimi near railroad tracks in the Essonne region south of Paris a few days after the kidnappers ended contact with Halimi's family; he died en route to a hospital.
"They acted with indescribable cruelty," the judiciary police chief leading the investigation said. "They kept him naked and tied up for weeks. They cut him and in the end poured flammable liquid on him and set him alight."
Halimi was abducted on January 21 after a woman came into the mobile phone store where he worked and charmed him into a dinner date; she had been sent by the gang. The first break in the case came after the police released an Identikit image of the woman suspected of "baiting" Halimi. After turning herself in out of fears that neighbors would identify her, the woman claimed that she was indeed asked to seduce a number of young men, but was unaware of the act's purpose; she identified the apartment where Halimi had been kept.
Investigating judge Corinne Goetzmann on Monday placed six men and a woman under investigation -- a step short of formal charges -- for the alleged plot to kidnap and kill on religious, racial or ethnic motives.
Authorities suspect 13 people of roles in the case. Two women and a man were placed under investigation on Saturday, and police are looking for two women and the suspected ringleader, who remain at large.
Justice Minister Pascal Clement, speaking to reporters outside an annual meeting of France's main Jewish umbrella group, CRIF, confirmed investigators had alleged "aggravated circumstances of anti-Semitism."
Speaking to reporters Friday, state prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin had ruled out anti-Semitism in the case, saying that the suspects were unemployed and launched the plot for the money.
The alleged gang had been behind at least six kidnapping attempts since December, Marin said. He said that none of those would-be victims were Jewish.
But the victim's family claims that anti-Semitism motivated the murder.
"We think there is anti-Semitism in this affair," Rafi Halimi, Ilan's uncle, told the press.
"First, because the killers tried to kidnap at least two other Jews, and second, because of what they said on the phone," Rafi Halimi added. "When we said we didn't have 500,000 euros to give them they told us to go to the synagogue and get it," Rafi said. "They also recited verses from the Koran."
After Halimi's kidnapping on Jan. 21, his family received a series of ransom demands - starting with one for the equivalent of $536,940.
Under questioning by investigators, one of the suspects "made it clear that he had attacked Ilan Halimi 'because he was Jewish, and Jews are rich'," Clement said.
"If Ilan hadn't been Jewish, he wouldn't have been murdered," Ilan's mom said. She accuses the police of ignoring the anti-Semitic motivation in the case in order not to alienate Muslims, Haaretz reported.
The French Anti-Semitism Vigilance Bureau (BVCA) has asked the police to investigate and determine whether or not there is an anti-Semitic background to this affair and whether the gang is targeting Jews. The CRIF, issued a statement Friday calling on the Jewish community "to keep calm, cautious and wait for developments in the investigation."
Officials believe that the ringleader, who had allegedly dubbed himself the "Brain of Barbarians," could have left France. Police have issued an arrest warrant for him and the two women still on the run.
Haaretz reported that a police source said the gang is a group of childhood friends who grew up in Bagneux, a suburb south of Paris. The gang includes Muslims of North African descent and is headed by 26-year-old Youssef Fofana, who has escaped police capture so far. He is already known to the police services as "extremely dangerous."
A total of 15 people were originally taken into custody, but five were later released. When the woman who lured Halimi turned herself in to police Thursday, police quickly netted 12 other suspects in a raid in a housing project in Bagneux, south of Paris.
One suspect was captured in Belgium.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who was also at the CRIF meeting, denounced a "barbaric, odious, villainous crime," and vowed a thorough search for other suspects who fled.
"We owe the truth to all French people," said Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who also attended. "We owe the truth to Ilan's family."
Family accuses police of fatal missteps
Ilan Halimi's mother revealed to Haaretz that the police told the family to ignore the gang's attempts to contact them for five critical days, after which Ilan was found near death outside the city. "Five days before Ilan was found, the police told us, 'Don't answer the phone, don't repond to text messages.' We saw dozens of calls and ignored them. On Thursday they found Ilan dead."
Several shops in the area where Halimi worked, the 11th arondissement, were closed on Friday, with signs explaining that it was a gesture of sympathy for Halimi's family. 1,000 or so people attended Ilan Halimi's funeral in the Pantin cemetery on Friday.
On Sunday, despite the rain, approximately 5,000 people marched in Ilan's memory, from Republic Square to Nation Square in Paris, Guysen Israel News reported.
The family came to France from Morocco 25 years ago. Ilan's mom said the he recently began talking about immigrating to Israel.
"He only wanted to work a little first to save up money for the trip," she said.
AP contributed to this report.
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