This week, a measure of justice was achieved in a French court when Yacine Mihoub was sentenced to life imprisonment, and his accomplice, Alex Carrimbacus, received 15 years in prison for the brutal 2018 murder of an 85-year-old Jewish woman, Mireille Kroll. (Carrimbacus was only convicted of robbing the victim.) The court found that there was an anti-Semitic nature to the murder and robbery.
French justice has been severely criticized since the murder of another Jewish woman, Sarah Halimi, had been found criminally "not responsible" for the brutal crime since he had been smoking marijuana previous to killing Halimi. The Halimi case is referenced in the below article from France 24, which is translated by Fousesquawk.
Note: The reference to the 1942 Vel d'Hiv(er) roundup refers to the location, the bicycle racing arena of Paris, (Winter Velodrome) where Jews were kept before being shipped east to their deaths during the German occupation of World War 2.
Anti-Semitism: The murderer of Mireille Knoll sentenced to life imprisonment
Caption beneath photo: A tribute in front of the apartment of Mireille Knoll during a silent march in Paris, France, Wednesday, 28 March 2018.
The criminal court of Paris sentenced Yacine Mihoub to life imprisonment for the murder of Mireille Knoll in 2018. The body of this woman, age 85, suffering from Parkinson's disease, had been discovered stabbed and partially burned in her residence. The aggravating circumstance of the victim belonging to the Jewish community was recognized.
Yacine Mihoub was sentenced Wednesday, 10 November, by the criminal court of Paris to life imprisonment, at least 22 years to be served, for the 2018 murder of Mireille Knoll, with the aggravating circumstance that the victim belonged to the Jewish community.
His co-defendant, Alex Carrimbacus, was acquitted of the murder of the octogenarian but sentenced to a punishment of 15 years imprisonment, at least 2/3rds to be served for robbing the victim. The anti-Semitic character (of the crime) was also applied for him, as well as the aggravating circumstance of Mrs. Knoll's vulnerability, 85 years old and very weakened by Parkinson's disease.
An "anti-Semitic halo"
The court concluded that the facts had taken place within a "global anti-Semitic context", according to the reading by (court) president Franck Zientara after more than 9 hours of deliberating.
According to the court, "the villainous character was fed by a hatred due to the victim's belonging to the Jewish religion" and by the prejudices of Yacine Mihoub and "beliefs that valuables could be concealed" in the social housing of Mireille Knoll.
"It's just; it's what we were expecting. Our family can begin mourning," the grandson of Mireille Knoll reacted.
The arguments before the court concentrated on the question of the anti-Semitic character of the crime. Snippets of conversation on Jews and stereotypes on their supposed wealth, as well as internet searches, constituted the set of facts to determine the "anti-Semitic halo" in which, according to the attorney general and the civil parties, the crime was carried out.
11 knife blows
On 23 March 2018, the fire department was called for a fire in an HLM (moderate rent housing) in east Paris. On the 2nd floor, they found the partly burned body of Mireille Knoll, laid across her hospital bed, her legs dangling. Her frail corpse had suffered 11 knife blows.
The attorney general had requested imprisonment for life with at least 18 years to be served.
The death of Mireille Knoll, who had fled Paris in 1942 to escape the Vel d'Hiv roundup, had aroused great emotion, especially since a year previous, Sarah Halimi, a Jewish woman in her 60s, had been killed and thrown from her window by a man who was ultimately found not to be criminally responsible.
Three days after the death of Mireille Knoll, the Paris prosecutor opened a judicial investigation for "murder " of an anti-Semitic nature before the case was sent to the criminal court of Paris in July 2020 for voluntary homicide.
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