Is it true that an anti-Semitic murderer from Mali in France escaped prison because he was high at the time of the crime?

In the spring of 2021, information appeared that in France, a young Muslim man who killed an elderly Jewish woman escaped trial due to the fact that he was under the influence of drugs at the time of the crime. We have verified the accuracy of this news.

This news was shared with its readers, in particular, by the Russian-language Israeli news portal NewsRu.Co.Il and Jewish online center Jewish.Ru. Posts on this topic were also shared by users of social networks - for example, Facebook And "VKontakte".

In 2017, 65-year-old Orthodox Jewish woman Sarah Halimi fell from her apartment window in Paris. It turned outthat the woman’s death was not an accident - she was first beaten and then thrown down by her 27-year-old neighbor, a native of Mali, Kobili Traore. According to witnesses, the man at that time shouted “Allahu Akbar!” and “I killed the devil!” As it became known later, Traore was studying drug trafficking and constantly smoked marijuana. Since 2017, he has been in a psychiatric hospital.

The trial in this case continued for four years. April 14, 2021 French Supreme Court of Cassation agreed with decisions of lower courts. They found that Traore could not be convicted due to the fact that at the time of the murder he was in a state of “acute mental delirium” caused by the use of marijuana. This confirmed two psychiatric examinations were carried out. In accordance with current French legislation, being in such “delirium”, regardless of what caused this state, indicates that the person is not responsible for the acts committed at that time.

The decision of the French court caused different feelings among people: from bewilderment to indignation. President Emmanuel Macron statedthat the law needs to be amended as soon as possible. “The decision to take drugs and go crazy because of it should not exempt you from criminal liability,” the French leader commented on the situation. Previously Macron criticized and the lower court's decision in the case, provoking a sharp response from judges who saw it as an attack on the system of separation of powers.

The court's decision, based on the corresponding norm of French law, particularly worried the local Jewish community. President of the Council of Jewish Organizations in France Francis Califat believes, that after such an outcome “in the country it is possible to mock Jews and kill them with impunity.” In turn, President Macron promised in the future, support and protect “the family, relatives of the victim and all fellow citizens of the Jewish faith.”

Lawyers on both sides also commented on the failed verdict. Representative of the accused stated, which understands the disappointment of Halimi’s relatives, but the existing law does not allow his client to be convicted. Lawyers for the Halimi family called the court's decision a "bad signal for French Jews" and are planning appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. Sister of the murdered woman going file a claim in Israel - according to local law, an Israeli court can consider cases related to anti-Semitism committed in another country. However, France does not extradite its own citizens.

Photo: EREZ LIHTFELD / SIPA

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Read on the topic:

1. Highest French Court Rules Killer of Jewish Woman Cannot Stand Trial
2. Top French court upholds decision not to try suspect in Jewish woman’s murder
3. Sarah Halimi: Frenchwoman's sister seeks trial in Israel over killing