Sarah Halimi
Here in the US, in the wake of controversial police shootings, we hear a lot of talk about justice for (fill in the blank), and "say his/her name". Meanwhile, France is dealing with a miscarriage of justice that truly shocks the conscience. In 2017, a man broke into the apartment of his neighbor, a Jewish woman named Sarah Halimi, beat her savagely, and threw her off her balcony to her death while shouting, "Allahu akbar." She was 65 years old. In what should have been an open and shut case, a French court shockingly ruled that the perpetrator was not legally responsible for his act since he had been smoking marijuana!! About ten days ago, the French Supreme Court upheld that ruling. The killer is currently being held in a psychiatric institution.
Today, protests are being held in several cities in France, Europe, Israel, and the US to demand justice for Sarah Halimi. The closest to where I am in California will be in front of the French Consulate in Los Angeles.
Today's protest in Paris (Le Figaro)
Thousands of demonstrators in France demand justice for Sarah Halimi
These demonstrations were held Sunday as the Court of Cassation (High Appellate) confirmed, in mid-April, the lack of penal responsibility of the murderer of this Jewish woman in her 60s. The government has announced its intention to change the law.
Le Monde
Posted today at 04:13. Updated at 19:05
Caption beneath photo:
Gathering on April 25 in Lyon to contest the decision of the High Appellate Court to confirm the lack of legal responsibility of the man who killed Sarah Halimi, a Jewish woman in her 60s.
At Paris, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, and Marseille, several tens of thousands of people gathered Sunday, April 25 in France to contest the decision of the Court of Cassation to confirm the lack of legal responsibility of the man who killed Sarah Halimi, a Jewish woman in her 60s, in 2017 in Paris.
Under the slogan, Without justice, no Republic, more than 20,000 demonstrators, according to the police, gathered in the early afternoon at Trocadero Square in Paris at the initiative of We Act for Sarah Halimi.
The messages, "No law without justice", " Broken justice?", or "Justice for Sarah Halimi" were written on posters brandished by the crowd. "The clamor has risen, and hope has returned. Hope, you are here," the brother of Sarah Halimi, William Attal, declared from the podium. Personalities including Pascal Legitimus, Yvan Attal, and Cyril Hanouna testified to their "solidarity" with the Halimi family and called for, "changing the law" through messages played on a giant screen.
At Marseille, between 1,500 and 2,000 people, according to the prefecture of police, marched Sunday to the Palace of Justice, where a banner had been hung, "Justice for Sarah". Present at the head of the procession were elected Republicans, Martine Vassal, who directs the department of Bouches-du-Rhône, and Renaud Muselier, president of the region, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.
At Strasbourg, about 600 demonstrators, according to the prefecture, gathered in the front court of the Grand Synagogue of Peace. "I call on you to remain dignified in the face of what looks like a denial of justice," Maurice Dahan, president of the Israeli consistory of Bass-Rhin, told them.
Hundreds of people also gathered before the embassy of France in Tel-Aviv, in Israel, to demand a trial for the murderer of Sarah Halimi. "I am ashamed to be French, the France of my childhood no longer exists, " stated Roselyn Mimouni, a French-Israeli retiree who came to demonstrate. "I am appalled that a Jewish woman was murdered in France because she was Jewish."
A bill in progress
Shortly before the demonstrations Sunday, the keep of the seals, Eric Dupond-Morettu, had announced the presentation for the end of May in the Council of Ministers, of a bill aimed at "filling a vacuum" after the decision of Court of Cassation. An announcement that comes after a request by Emmanuel Macron to make a change in the law. "Deciding to take drugs and then becoming "like crazy", should not, in my view, remove your legal responsibility. There too, there is no false impunity," the president reasoned.
The highest judicial court, on April 14, rejected the appeal lodged by the family of Mrs. Halimi against the decision by the Paris Appeals Court rendered in 2019, which had declared the man to be legally not responsible on the basis of three expert evaluations, according to which, he had committed the acts during the course of a "delirious outburst" due to a large consummation of cannabis. The Court of Cassation, while confirming the anti-Semitic nature of the crime, confirmed the lack of legal responsibility of the murderer.
The family wants Israeli justice to (take over)
In an interview with Le Monde published Friday, François Molins, current prosecutor general of the Court of Cassation, recalled that the decision had been rendered, "in conformance with the rule of law". "Justice does not give anyone permission to kill," he assured. "The emotion caused by this decision reveals, without doubt, that the law was not adapted," Mr. Molins admitted while warning Parliament against the temptation to "legislate in urgency and under the force of emotion".
The family of Sarah Halimi, who had already showed their anger at seeing the murderer of this 65-year-old Parisian not being judged by the courts, wants Israeli justice to take over to bring a trial against Kobili Traore, who had beaten Sarah Halimi before throwing her out of a window.
"Israeli penal law provides that when the victim is Jewish and the crime is of an anti-Semitic nature, Israeli justice is competent (can take jurisdiction)," explained Mr Francis Szpiner, one of the lawyers for the family of the victim.
No comments:
Post a Comment