Thousands of people have rallied in Paris and other French cities to denounce a ruling by France’s highest court that the killer of Jewish woman Sarah Halimi was not criminally responsible and therefore could not go on trial.
Crowds gathered Sunday in front of the Eiffel Tower, answering a call by Jewish associations, organizations fighting antisemitism and other groups who say justice has not been done.
Halimi, a 65-year-old Jewish woman, died in 2017 after being pushed out of the window of her Paris apartment by her neighbor, Kobili Traoré, who allegedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” or God is great in Arabic.
The ruling from the Court of Cassation, issued earlier this month, said there was enough evidence to show the act had antisemitic motives.
However, the court said that a person who committed a crime while being in a “delirious state” cannot be sent to trial, even if the state was caused by the habitual use of illegal drugs.
The court said in a statement that according to unanimous opinions of different psychiatry experts, that man was presenting at the time of the facts a severe delirious state.
However, the announcement that the killer would not be sent to trial sparked outrage among the French and international Jewish community.
Under French law, people cannot be held criminally responsible for actions committed while fully losing their judgment or self-control due to a psychiatric disorder.
Traoré has been in a specialized unit of a psychiatric hospital since Halimi’s death.
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