She says she was treated as a “dirty Jew” by her attackers: the circumstances of the rape and violence denounced by a 12-year-old girl in Courbevoie (Hauts-de-Seine) became clearer on Wednesday, after the indictment and placement in detention of two 13-year-old teenagers.
The young victim told investigators that one of the teenagers in question had “asked her questions about her Jewish religion,” asking her why she didn’t talk about it and asking her about Israel, a police source said. He also called her a “dirty Jew.”
Faced with the excitement caused by this affair, President Emmanuel Macron asked during the Council of Ministers that “a time for discussions” be organized in the coming days in schools on racism and anti-Semitism.
“The fight against anti-Semitism must be that of all republicans,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal reacted on X, expressing “horror” and “revolt.”
The two 13-year-old teenagers were imprisoned on Tuesday. A third suspect, aged 12, was placed under the status of assisted witness for rape, indicted for the other offenses covered by the investigation and is the subject of a provisional educational measure, according to the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office. .
According to the victim’s initial statements, one of the attackers filmed the scene, which took place on Saturday in a disused building in Courbevoie, at the foot of the La Défense business district, not far from the victim’s home.
Another threatened to kill her if she reported the incident to the police.
– “Regrets” –
“During their first appearance interrogation, the three minors made brief spontaneous statements, expressing regret towards the victim without addressing their involvement in the facts,” the public prosecutor said in a press release.
The young teenager was beaten and forced to perform anal and vaginal penetrations as well as fellatio, according to police sources.
“Sordid”, “abject”: in the middle of the electoral campaign, this affair arouses numerous reactions on both sides of the political spectrum.
The leader of La France insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon denounced on has been attacking France since October 7″ and the bloody attacks carried out by Hamas in Israel.
Marine Le Pen (RN) took on the “extreme left” head-on, denouncing the “stigmatization of Jews for months through the exploitation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
– Outbreak of anti-Semitic acts –
The SOS Racisme association provided “all its support to the victim and his family” in this “sordid affair”, recalling the “worrying” increase in anti-Semitic acts since October 7.
In the Jewish community and beyond, the facts denounced by the young girl have provoked very strong emotion.
In Paris, several hundred people gathered in front of the Town Hall at the call of the Nous Vivrons collective, in the presence of the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti. “This anti-Semitic rape is a continuation of a climate hostile to Jews,” denounced the collective.
The president of the Central Consistory, Elie Korchia, deplored on X “a sordid and despicable sexual crime which moves us deeply”.
“No one can be exonerated in the face of this unprecedented anti-Semitic outpouring,” commented the Chief Rabbi of France, Haïm Korsia, on X, saying he was “horrified.”
On the same social network, the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (Crif) expressed its “immense emotion at the tragic rape of this young girl”.
“Rape is a tool of destruction in the service of hatred and when children rape children, it is also society as a whole that must ask itself the question of its responsibility in the face of violence, anti-Semitism and misogyny at work in our country,” reacted the Women’s Foundation.
“It’s a despicable act, we can’t believe it still exists,” Jacques Kossowski, LR mayor of Courbevoie, told AFP. “What I hope is that justice can firmly condemn these attackers, whatever their age,” the mayor continued.
Anti-Semitic acts soared in France in the first quarter of 2024, according to government figures, which reported “366 anti-Semitic acts” recorded between January and March, up 300% compared to the first three months of 2023. .
In January, the CRIF reported a sharp increase in anti-Semitic acts in France, which quadrupled in one year, going from 436 in 2022 to 1,676 in 2023, with an “explosion” after October 7.
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