"Since my brother was murdered in 2006, unfortunately anti-Semitic crimes have continued. Ilan was the first but unfortunately not the last. The situation of Jews in France has worsened, their life has deteriorated," says Anne-Laure, sister of Ilan Halimi, a young Parisian Jewish man who was brutally murdered eleven years ago by a group called the "gang of barbarians."
"I am scared for myself and for my children because anti-Semitic acts are more and more frequent. France has not learned from the murder of my brother," she told French Jewish magazine Actualité Juive.
The gang of at least 16 people led by Franco-Ivoirian Youssouf Fofana abducted Halimi, then tortured and starved him for 24 days while they negotiated with his family to obtain a ransom. Fofana assured his gang that they would be paid "because Halimi was Jewish and thus rich."
The 23-year-old man was found on a railway track in a Paris suburb, on February 13, 2006, naked, gagged, handcuffed and with burns and other signs of torture on his body. He died in the ambulance that was taking him to hospital.
Fofana who was convicted in 2009 in the torture and killing of Ilan had his life sentence extended last month by a Paris Court for previous extortions. Twenty other accomplices, who were involved to varying degrees, were also convicted and sentenced.
However, several of them are already free. ''Once I crossed in the metro a girl that was involved in the murder of my brother. It was very painful to know that she was there, like me, and she lived her life while my life was no more the same,'' she recounted.read more
Connected: Remember Ilan Halimi, 11th anniversary of his kidnapping, torturing and murder
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| Ilan Halimi was re-buried in Jerusalem |
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