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NEWS
Jewish Teen Tortured Near Site of Halimi Murder
By Arnon Yaffeh, Paris
A Jewish teen named Mathieu Roumi was hauled into a basement,
where he was bound and tortured for an entire day three weeks
ago right near the spot on the outskirts of Paris where Ilan
Halimi Hy"d was tortured and murdered two years ago.
The police are still claiming the incident was based on
criminal motives, but were forced to notify the public
regarding the incident following a leak in the Jewish
press.
Six youths from various ethnic groups living in the building
projects in Bagneux, a blue-collar Muslim suburb, were
arrested and charged with holding and torturing the youth and
a crime of an antisemitic nature.
According to the police's version of the affair, two youths
ran into a 19-year-old Jew they knew from the building
projects, demanding he pay back money they claimed he had
stolen from them. He replied that he had not stolen anything,
and then another four youths appeared on the scene, snatched
him and brought him down to a basement, where they tied him
up and beat him for hours. Other youths entered the basement
during the course of the day, where they also took part in
the beating and wrote the words "dirty Jew" on his forehead
using correction fluid. He was released at the end of the day
following a dispute among the gang members.
Although the victim arrived at the police station bleeding
and with the writing still on his forehead, the police
refused to classify the attack as an antisemitic incident.
His parents had refrained from revealing their Jewish
identity to their neighbors. Investigators were surprised an
attempt to settle a financial dispute turned into antisemitic
torture.
CRIF, an umbrella group for Jewish organizations in France,
says antisemitism is becoming a part of street culture among
gang members in suburban communities. According to a report
in Le Monde youths in Bagneux are puzzled that the
recent attack drew so much attention. One sociologist says in
these neighborhoods there is no taboo against antisemitic
speech and acts. According to some reports, only his father
is Jewish.
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