The Court concluded that a discussion between Mireille Knoll’s two assailants that invoked antisemitic tropes about Jews was “plausible.”

 

A Paris Court of Appeal has confirmed the anti-Semitic nature of the murder of Mireille Knoll, a  85-year-old Holocaust survivor.

She was found stabbed eleven times, the body partially charred, in her apartment in eastern Paris in 2018.

Yacine Mihoub, 31, the son of a neighbor who had known the octogenarian since childhood, and Alex Carrimbacus, 24, an outcast with a psychiatric history, were quickly suspected for the murder.

In their decision, last July, two investigating judges retained the anti-Semitic nature of the murder, based on the statements of Alex Carrimbacus. He said that, during a discussion with Mireille Knoll, Yacine Mihoub had criticized the Jews for “having financial means and a good situation”.

The two had appealed the decision to the investigative chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal. Their lawyers argued that the accusation of antisemitism had been ‘’fabricated’’.

“The conditions to retain the aggravating circumstance of anti-Semitism are based only on the fantasized statements of the co-accused of Yacine Mihoub and cannot be considered sufficient,” said one of Mihoub’s lawyers.

But the Paris Court of Appeal rejected the plea and concluded that a discussion between the two assailants that invoked antisemitic tropes about Jews was “plausible.”

The lawyer for Mireille Knoll’s family, Gilles-William Goldnadel, said that the court decision had come as a “relief.”