A French juvenile court on Friday handed down prison sentences to two Muslim teenagers for their roles in the brutal antisemitic sexual assault of a 12-year-old Jewish girl last year.
A third boy, the girl's former boyfriend, was also found complicit but was placed in foster care due to his young age, reports France24.
The court in Nanterre, a suburb west of Paris, sentenced the two main perpetrators to nine and seven years, respectively. The presiding judge cited their “worrying” personalities and the “immense social disturbance” caused by the crime, emphasizing that the assault was religiously motivated. According to the judge, the girl “would not have been raped if she had not been Jewish.”
The attack occurred on June 15, 2024, in Courbevoie, a suburb northwest of Paris near the La Defense financial district. The girl told investigators she was approached by the three boys in a park near her home and dragged into an abandoned daycare center, according to the Daily Mail. There, the boys beat her “while uttering death threats and antisemitic remarks.”
The assailants reportedly called her a “dirty Jew” and questioned her about “her Jewish religion” and Israel. One of the boys filmed the assault, and another threatened to kill the girl if she spoke to police, according to law enforcement sources.
The third boy, who was also 12 at the time and had previously dated the victim, was not sentenced to prison. Instead, the court placed him under state care and ordered five years of supervision by social services.
The case drew national attention and sparked outrage across France’s Jewish community.. Politicians of all stripes condemned the incident.
President Emmanuel Macron described it as a symptom of the ongoing “scourge” of antisemitism. Public demonstrations in support of the victim took place in both Paris and Courbevoie following news of the assault.
France has experienced a sharp increase in antisemitic incidents in recent years. The Interior Ministry reported 436 cases in 2022, which spiked to 1,676 in 2023 before slightly declining to 1,570 last year. Jewish advocacy groups have linked the rise to fallout from the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent military response in Gaza.
A third boy, the girl's former boyfriend, was also found complicit but was placed in foster care due to his young age, reports France24.
The court in Nanterre, a suburb west of Paris, sentenced the two main perpetrators to nine and seven years, respectively. The presiding judge cited their “worrying” personalities and the “immense social disturbance” caused by the crime, emphasizing that the assault was religiously motivated. According to the judge, the girl “would not have been raped if she had not been Jewish.”
The attack occurred on June 15, 2024, in Courbevoie, a suburb northwest of Paris near the La Defense financial district. The girl told investigators she was approached by the three boys in a park near her home and dragged into an abandoned daycare center, according to the Daily Mail. There, the boys beat her “while uttering death threats and antisemitic remarks.”
The assailants reportedly called her a “dirty Jew” and questioned her about “her Jewish religion” and Israel. One of the boys filmed the assault, and another threatened to kill the girl if she spoke to police, according to law enforcement sources.
The third boy, who was also 12 at the time and had previously dated the victim, was not sentenced to prison. Instead, the court placed him under state care and ordered five years of supervision by social services.
The case drew national attention and sparked outrage across France’s Jewish community.. Politicians of all stripes condemned the incident.
President Emmanuel Macron described it as a symptom of the ongoing “scourge” of antisemitism. Public demonstrations in support of the victim took place in both Paris and Courbevoie following news of the assault.
France has experienced a sharp increase in antisemitic incidents in recent years. The Interior Ministry reported 436 cases in 2022, which spiked to 1,676 in 2023 before slightly declining to 1,570 last year. Jewish advocacy groups have linked the rise to fallout from the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent military response in Gaza.
