74-year-old Jewish woman beaten, tied to a chair and robbed in Paris
A 74-year-old Jewish woman has reportedly been beaten and robbed in Paris, France.
According to the Paris-based National Bureau for Vigilance Against Antisemitism (BNVCA), the attack occurred on 13th December where the two suspects, described as being Black and around sixteen or seventeen years of age, reportedly pretended to be members of the building’s security personnel and rang the victim’s door.
When the victim, currently identified only as Mrs LU, opened the door, the suspects reportedly forced their way into the abode before beating and robbing the victim.
The suspects allegedly tied Mrs LU to a chair, punched her repeatedly across the face and ordered her to reveal where she kept her jewellery. A piece of tape was also reportedly applied over her mouth to muffle her cries.
It was also alleged that while one of the suspects robbed the apartment, the other stood guard over the victim. The pair then fled the scene with all of the victim’s jewellery, leaving the victim bruised and in a state of shock.
The BNVCA noted that Mrs LU’s apartment was affixed with a mezuzah which would have identified her as Jewish to the suspects. The organisation said: “We call on the police to do everything possible to identify the two attackers, and to carry out patrols in order to protect the residents of this neighborhood, which has become dangerous and infamous.”
In 2017, Ms Halimi, a 65-year-old Jewish woman, was murdered by her 27-year-old Muslim neighbour, Kobili Traoré, after he tortured her before pushing her out of a window to her death. Mr Traoré was said to have yelled “Allah Akbar,” “I killed the shaitan,” which is an Arabic word for ‘devil’ or ‘demon’, along with antisemitic vitriol.
Campaign Against Antisemitism held a rally in April in solidarity with French Jews in opposition to the Court of Cassation’s ruling to let Sarah Halimi’s murderer go free.
In November, Yacine Mihoub was convicted of stabbing 85-year-old Mireille Knoll, a French Holocaust survivor, eleven times in her Paris apartment and was sentenced to life in prison. Ms Knoll was murdered during a botched robbery in March 2018 that also saw her body set alight in an effort by the perpetrators to burn her apartment.
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