French Court Orders Trial Over Woman's 'anti-Semitic' Death

Paris, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Jul, 2020 ) :French judges on Monday ordered two men to stand trial for the brutal 2018 killing of an elderly Jewish woman that prompted an outcry over a rise in anti-Semitic acts.

Mireille Knoll, 85 and suffering from Parkinson's disease, was stabbed in her Paris apartment by attackers who later set her body on fire, apparently to hide evidence of their crime.

She had escaped the mass deportation of Jews from France during World War II by fleeing abroad.

A longtime neighbour, Yacine Mihoub, and associate Alexandre Carrimbacus were later arrested on charges of murder and aggravated robbery, though prosecutors did not initially characterise the killing as anti-Semitic.

Under questioning Carrimbacus accused Mihoub of yelling "Allahu Akbar (God is greatest)" while stabbing Knoll and of justifying the attack by saying "Jews have money."The revelations outraged France's Jewish community, which called it the latest in a series of increasingly brazen anti-Semitic acts, including violence and desecrations of Jewish cemeteries.

Thousands attended silent marches on the day of Knoll's funeral, which was attended by President Emmanuel Macron.