The death of the 31-year-old man in Bobigny, near Paris, ame to light after a video emerged on social media showing Jeremy Cohen being attacked by a large group of men before running away to escape his aggressors and being then hit by a tram. Jeremy’s two brothers have been to the scene and collected the video which was widely shared on social networks on Monday.

 

The violence that preceded the death of Jeremy Cohen, a young Jewish man hit by a tram in mid-February in Bobigny, near Paris, had no “discriminatory motives” at this stage of the investigation, said the prosecutor, Eric Mathais.

“It does not appear from the testimony collected so far that the attack (on Jeremy Cohen) was committed for discriminatory reasons,” he said at a press conference.

“The report said that it was not possible to establish with certainty that the victim was wearing a kippah at the time of the violence,” he added.

Jérémy Cohen, a 31-year-old Jewish man with disability,  was hit and killed by a tram after being violently beaten by a gang of youths in the Paris suburb in mid-February.

The case came to light after a video emerged on social media showing Cohen being attacked by a large group of men before running away to escape his aggressors and being then hit by the tram. Jeremy’s two brothers have been to the scene and collected the video which was widely shared on social networks on Monday.

As French Jewish radio Radio Shalom revealed the case, Cohen’s parents believe that their son was the victim of an antisemitic aggression.

“The hypothesis that the victim crossed the tramway tracks to escape his attackers was naturally taken into account,” said Eric Mathais.  On March 29, a judicial investigation was opened on the charge of “deliberate violence in a meeting leading to death without intention to give it”, continued the prosecutor.

“Without the vigilance of Jeremy Cohen’s family, we would never have known, I think, the truth”, namely that before he was hit, he was trying to escape his attackers who had violently attacked him,’’ said Francis Kalifat, President of Crif, the Representative Council of French Jewish institutions.

“We may be dealing with a new case, a new anti-Semitic crime, the investigation will tell us. All the light must be made. To this day there are no elements that attest to the anti-Semitic act, just as there are no elements that refute this hypothesis,’’ he added.