Daily Le Figaro reported that the cabinet of French president Macron has successively met with Jérémy Cohen’s mother, then with his father in order ‘’to convey the President’s compassion. “Shocked” and “shaken”, Macron also wanted to let them know that, “in respect of the independence of justice, all means of investigation will be implemented to identify the perpetrators of this aggression and make all the light on this case”.

At the request of French President Emmanuel Macron, his cabinet contacted the parents of Jérémy Cohen, a 31-year-old Jewish man with disability who was hit and killed by a tram after being violently beaten by a gang of youths in a Paris suburb in February.

As French Jewish radio Radio Shalom revealed the case, Cohen’s parents believe that their son was the victim of an antisemitic aggression. They have identified video footage showing that the incident could have been triggered by an assault. The video shows Cohen being attacked by a large group of men in Bobigny, near Paris, before running away to escape his aggressors and being then hit by the tram car.

According to his parents, Cohen usually wore a kippah in public.

Prosecutor in Bobigny announced that they were investigating Cohen’s death and the circumstances surrounding it. They said they had opened the investigation in late March and were looking into the possibility that “intentional violence” had resulted in an unintended death.

“The hypothesis that the victim crossed the tramway tracks to escape his attackers was naturally taken into account,” said a statement from the prosecutor’s office.

”A judicial investigation was therefore opened, for “deliberate violence in a meeting leading to death without intention to give it,” it added.

“The investigation is now continuing under the authority of an examining magistrate and on a rogatory commission entrusted to the departmental service of the judicial police of Seine-Saint-Denis,” the statement concluded.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Daily Le Figaro reported that the cabinet of French president Macron has successively met with Jérémy Cohen’s mother, then with his father in order ‘’to convey the President’s compassion. “Shocked” and “shaken”, Macron also wanted to let them know that, “in respect of the independence of justice, all means of investigation will be implemented to identify the perpetrators of this aggression and make all the light on this case”.

The case surfaced days before next Sunday’s first round of presidential election in France.

Several candidates have already reacted publicly on social networks or on television, expressing their indignation.

Among them, controversial extreme-righty candidate Eric Zemmour who tweeted : ‘’Did he die because he was a Jew? Why is this case hushed up?” .

“What was presented as an accident could be an anti-Semitic murder,” tweeted Marine Le Pen, leader of Rassemblement National (National Rally) party, who is polling in second behind incumbent President  Emmanuel Macron. “How to explain the silence on this affair and its motivations?,” she asked.