French protest over no trial for Jewish woman's killer

Thousands of protesters gathered in several French cities and Israel on Sunday to denounce a court's refusal to put a man on trial over the killing of a 65-year-old Jewish woman.

The demonstrators decried the decision by France's top court that her killer could not be held criminally responsible since he had acted in a state of dementia.

A 19-year-old law student protesting in Paris described the ruling as "inexplicable." She said that, as a Jewish French citizen, she was profoundly affected by it.

"With this decision ... we feel abandoned," she said.

Why is the court refusing the trial?

The controversy stems from the 2017 killing of Sarah Halimi, who was pushed out of the window by her neighbor Kobili Traore, who was 27 at the time. Traore shouted "Allahu Akbar" during the crime.

Recently, France's Court of Cassation confirmed that Traore, a drug dealer and a heavy cannabis user, should not face trial because he was in an altered state of mind when the attack took place.

"According to unanimous opinions of different psychiatry experts, that man was presenting at the time of the facts a severe delirious state,'' the court said.

Traore has been held in a psychiatric hospital since the 2017 killing. He has confessed to the crime.

The court found that there is enough evidence to indicate an anti-Semitic motive. However, French laws state that people cannot be held criminally responsible for acts committed while losing their judgment or self-control due to a mental disorder.

What do French leaders say?

The decision angered Jewish activists in France and also prompted a fierce response from the country's top politicians. President Macron called for the laws to be changed.

"Deciding to take narcotics and then 'going mad' should, not in my view, remove your criminal responsibility,'' Macron told the Le Figaro newspaper. He also expressed support for the victim's family.

The French diplomat Michel Barnier, who until recently served as EU's top negotiator in Brexit talks, tweeted a picture of Halimi and urged fighting anti-Semitism "in all its forms and at all times."

On Sunday, Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti tweeted that he would present a bill to "fill the legal void" revealed by the Halimi case, describing it as a "tragic story."

The lawyers for the victim's family have said they would take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

dj/mm (AFP, AP, dpa)