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Youssef Fofana, the suspected ringleader (AP)
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| By Associated Press February 22, 2006 |
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French investigators were heading Tuesday to Ivory Coast in search of the suspected gang leader behind the torture and killing of a young Jewish man amid suspicions that anti-Semitism may have played a part.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said police raids had turned up documents supporting a Palestinian aid group and others with a militant Islamic character. He did not elaborate.
"The truth is that these hoodlums first acted out of sordid, villainous motives - money," Sarkozy said during a National Assembly session, "but they believed - and I quote - 'that Jews have money."'
"That's called anti-Semitism ..." he added.
French authorities found 23-year-old Ilan Halimi naked, handcuffed and covered with burn marks last week near railroad tracks in the Essonne region south of Paris. He died on his way to a hospital.
President Jacques Chirac spoke Tuesday by phone with Halimi's parents, expressing his support and stressing that authorities would determine "notably if it was an anti-Semitic act," his office said.
Ruth Halimi, the victim's mother, told RTL radio her son's fate "was sealed from the start. They went all-out, they lynched him alive, they burned him, they cut him - all just because he was Jewish."
Anger over the incident has mounted among Jewish and anti-racism groups who accused police of initially ignoring the anti-Semitic nature of the attack. Top government officials began speaking out Monday.
Anti-racism groups were planning demonstrations across France on Saturday.
Judicial officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing, confirmed that documents linked to religious aid groups had been found in the police raid, but cautioned that the papers did not indicate the suspects were members of a militant group.
The documents included printouts from an Internet site that referred to the principles of Islam, and in no way involved a call to jihad, or holy war, they said.
The gang also attempted to kidnap six other people - four of them Jewish, Sarkozy said. Paris state prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin had played down the prospect of an anti-Semitic motive, saying at a news conference Friday that none of the six others was Jewish.
Investigating Judge Corinne Goetzmann on Monday placed seven people under investigation - a step short of formal charges - for the alleged plot to kidnap and kill on religious, racial or ethnic motives.
Police are looking for two women and the suspected ringleader - an Ivory Coast native identified as Youssouf Fofana - who remain at large. Investigators were headed to Abidjan, the capital of the west African country, to pursue reports that he had fled there, officials said.
The police dragnet in France continued Tuesday, with two new suspects detained in the Bouches-du-Rhone region on the Mediterranean coast, and a third in the Paris area, officials said.
Halimi's killing has touched a nerve in France, which has western Europe's largest Jewish population and has seen anti-Semitic acts spike in sporadic waves in recent years.
Halimi, a mobile phone salesman in northeast Paris, was kidnapped Jan. 21 after a meeting with a young woman. His family later received a series of ransom demands - starting with one for nearly US$537,000.
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