PARIS - In a letter to Madam Nicole Belloubet, French Justice Minister, the Director for International Relations of the SimonWiesenthal Centre, Dr. Shimon Samuels, made the following comments: “alcohol, cannabis and psychiatry must not be used by the French judiciary system as excuses for perpetrators of antisemiticmurder and violence."
Shimon Samuels addressing the issue with Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet at CRIF Jewish Leadership dinner
In 2005, the Wiesenthal Centre - Europe President, Richard Odier, and Director Shimon Samuels, visited the Paris headquarters of a Magistrates TradeUnion. Seated in an anteroom awaiting the meeting, they were aghast at anti-Israel photos of events in which they appeared and the "Vive Palestine" flyers on the notice board. Many of the judgesof that generation were graduates of the 1968 Paris students revolt. They believed that “the victims of racism - essentially North African youth - could not be perpetrators.”
“There was thus established ‘the revolving-door of justice’.”
“Attackers in the suburbs - playing the role of ‘Palestinians’ against their unfortunate Jewish neighbours, cast in the role of ‘Israelis’ - would bearraigned by magistrates, scolded and sent home with a warning. The door would revolve to exit with impunity,” stated Samuels.
A new generation in the court system are loath to impose a penalty based on racist hate - which carries a much greater sentence At the most, theygave suspended 4 or 6 month sentences for screaming “Death to the Jews!” or participating in assaults.
The current approach is the argument:: “unfit for trial due to insanity or under the influence of alcohol or narcotics at the time of themurder.”
The Wiesenthal Centre has met with Ministers of Justice to little avail.
“The worst so far,” argued Samuels, “is the dropping of charges against Kabili Traore,the brutal murderer of 65 year old Sarah Halimi, stabbed andthrown from her 3rd floor window to the perpetrator's cries of ‘Allahu Akbar!’.”
Solidarity marches against antisemitism and for justice, just as newspaper petitions of prominent French intellectuals have served fornothing.
The charge of “intentional homicide” against the killer has apparently been dropped after almost three years of psychiatric tests... Justice has notbeen served and the public at large is a target the day he re-enters society, as a hero in his circle of growingly epidemic proportion”... “As a budget saving measure, France seeks to close downmany prisons. Freeing antisemitic murderers cannot be a contributing factor,” concluded Samuels.
For further information, contact Shimon Samuels at csweurope@gmail.com, join the Center onFacebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent directly to your Twitter feed.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish humanrights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europeand the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).
