France – The Murder of a Jew in Paris – An Antisemitic Act

  On 13^th February 2006, Ilan Halimi, a 23-year-old Jewish resident of Paris was found tied to the trunk of a tree, naked, wounded and suffering from burns all over his body. He died on the way to the hospital.

The incident had begun about three weeks previously when a young woman came into the cellular phone shop in which Halimi was employed and engaged him in conversation. The two exchanged telephone numbers, and after having spoken on the phone several times they agreed to meet in a suburb south of Paris. On 20^th January 2006, Halimi left for the meeting and disappeared. At a later date, his captors contacted Halimi's family and demanded 400 thousand euros in ransom however, since the family could not come up with such a large sum of money, the captors lowered the sum to "only"5,000 euros. They subsequently broke off contact. About 13 people were arrested as suspects, among them the gang leader Youssouf   Foufouna, who was arrested in the Ivory Coast. After the arrest, senior French officials said that the kidnap and murder were against an antisemitic background. According to one of the captors, Halimi was kidnapped because he is Jewish, and Jews are rich. One of them put a cigarette out on Halimi's face and said that he does not like Jews.