February 22, 2006
French authorities believe there may have been anti-Semitic motives in recent case of kidnapping and murder. Two members of the Paris crime brigade have traveled to the Ivory Coast in search of Youssouf Fofana, who arrived there on last Wednesday, two days after police found the body of 23-year-old Ilan Halimi dumped beside railway tracks south of Paris. Fofana is the leader of the gang believed responsible for kidnapping and torturing Halimi to death. Three more people were arrested on Tuesday in Belgium, bringing to 10 the number imprisoned in connection with the murder. Halimi was found on February 13th, three weeks after he was kidnapped. His body was covered with cuts and burns, and he died on the way to hospital. His Jewish family emigrated to France from Morocco. However, during the first day following the assassination, French officials denied that the killing might have been based on anti-Semitic motives. The theory was already widespread in the French Jewish community by the time investigating magistrates on Monday night added to the charge sheet "the victim's belonging to an ethnic group, nation, race or religion" as an aggravating factor. At the annual dinner of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) on Monday night, prime minister Dominique de Villepin confirmed that anti-Semitism was being investigated as a motive.
