Israel Matzav

A Jew Is Tortured and Killed in Paris...But Is it Anti-Semitism? Mais, non!

At Little Green Footballs, Charles Johnson links to a story by Allison Kaplan Sommer about the torture and murder of a young Parisian Jew by a gang of racists. Anyone want to speculate regarding their religious affiliation?

It all started on January 21, when a good-looking young woman walked into a cellular telephone store, started flirting with Halimi, and they made a date. It turned out that she was bait, used by a gang to lure Halimi into a kidnapping.

The woman had been sent by the gang, which calls itself "The Barbarians." A police source said the gang is a group of childhood friends who grew up in Bagneux, a suburb south of Paris. The gang includes Muslims of North African descent and is headed by Youssef Fofana, who has escaped police capture so far. According to Marin, the gang had made six similar abduction attempts in the past.

After overpowering Halimi, the gang brought him to an apartment in a high-rise in Bagneux. They contacted Halimi's family and over the next three weeks demanded ransoms ranging from 300,000 to 500,000 euros. According to reports, at one point they agreed upon a deal and set a meeting place but the kidnappers backed out and eventually ended contact.

On Monday, several weeks after he was seized, Halimi was found tied to a tree, naked and burned all over his body. He died on the way to the hospital.

"They acted with indescribable cruelty," the judiciary police chief leading the investigation said. "They kept him naked and tied up for weeks. They cut him and in the end poured flammable liquid on him and set him alight."

Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:18 PM