“Deciding to take narcotics and then ‘going mad’ should, not in my view, remove your criminal responsibility,” President Macron told daiy Le Figaro in an interview.
“I want to assure the family, relatives of the victim and all fellow citizens of Jewish faith who were awaiting this trial of my warm support and the determination of the Republic to protect them,” he said.
Amid outcry and anger over France Supreme Court’s decision that the murderer of Sarah Halimi, a 65-year-old Jewish woman, in 2017, was not criminally responsible and would not be tried, French President Emmanuel Macron has urged a change in the law.
27-year-old Kobili Traoré, a Muslim, burst into the apartment of Sarah Halimi, his neighbour, in Paris. To cries of “Allah Akbar”, he beat her several times while reciting verses from the Koran, before throwing her over the balcony of their house in Belleville, in the east of Paris.
Traore, a heavy cannabis smoker, has been in psychiatric care since Halimi’s death and he remains there after the ruling.
Upholding a lower court decision, France’s highest court said the man committed the killing after succumbing to a “delirious fit” and was thus not responsible for his actions. This means there will be no trial, which led to anger in the Jewish community.
Jewish groups said the ruling has made Jews less safe in France. Lawyers for Halimi’s family said they intend to refer the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
“Deciding to take narcotics and then ‘going mad’ should, not in my view, remove your criminal responsibility,” President Macron told daiy Le Figaro in an interview.
“I would like Justice Minister (Eric Dupond-Moretti) to present a change in the law as soon as possible”, he added.
“It is not for me to comment on a court decision,” Macron told Le Figaro.
“But I want to assure the family, relatives of the victim and all fellow citizens of Jewish faith who were awaiting this trial of my warm support and the determination of the Republic to protect them,” he added.
Francis Szpiner, one of the Halimi family’s lawyers, asked of the court’s strange logic: “Will this also apply to drunk drivers who kill children on the road?” The question answers itself. The madness here does not belong to Traoré. It belongs to France.
Halimi’s murder stoked debate over a new strain of anti-Semitism among radicalised Muslim youths in predominantly immigrant neighbourhoods.
A survey conducted by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) last year found that 70 percent of French Jews say they have been victims of at least one anti-Semitic incident in their lifetime.