France sees racist motive in brutal torture death

By Thierry Leveque and Tom Heneghan Mon Feb 20, 6:02 PM ET



PARIS (Reuters) - A young Jewish man who died after being kidnapped and tortured for weeks may have fallen victim to a racist attack, French leaders said on Monday, vowing to catch and punish those responsible for an "unspeakable barbarity."

France has been shocked by the murder of Ilan Halimi, 23, a mobile telephone salesman killed after being held captive for three weeks, and Jewish community leader Roger Cukierman urged the government to "provide the whole truth" about the case.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin told Jewish community leaders at their annual dinner that the judge handling the case was investigating leads pointing to an anti-Semitic attack, and said he had ordered his interior and justice ministers to shed all possible light on the affair.

Investigating magistrate Corinne Goetzmann placed seven suspects under formal investigation on Monday for kidnapping, illegal imprisonment, criminal association and "murder linked to the victim's religion."

Their victim Halimi, was found on February 13 lying in agony by a railway line outside Paris, with stab wounds and burns over much of his body. He died on the way to hospital.

Police said a gang led by a man calling himself "brain of the barbarians" used a young woman to lure Halimi into a trap and then detained and tortured him while demanding a ransom.

The gang, whose members are thought to be aged between 17 and 32, are suspected of involvement in six other kidnappings since the end of last year.

They contacted Halimi's family via the Internet, text messages and by telephone, demanding a ransom of 450,000 euros ($537,300). The family was unable to raise the funds.

ANTI-SEMITIC ATTACK?

Until now, police have publicly denied any anti-Semitic link, saying the gang led by an Ivory Coast immigrant with a Muslim name had also attacked non-Jews. But about 1,200 people, mostly Jews, marched in Paris on Sunday to protest against the killing.

"Was Ilan Halimi killed because he was Jewish?" Cukierman, head of the Council of French Jewish Institutions, asked at the dinner attended by Villepin and several ministers.

"Mr Prime Minister, you owe it to our country to tell the truth," he said.
"I ask your government to provide us with the whole truth and nothing but the truth about this affair, and especially about the motivations of the killers," he said.

"We will do everything possible so those who committed this barbarous crime are arrested and brought to justice," Villepin replied.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, whose police services have until now been reluctant to class the killing a hate crime, condemned the murder as "an act of unspeakable barbarity."

Justice Minister Pascal Clement told the same dinner one suspect had indicated Halimi was selected "because he was Jewish and because a Jew was rich. That is an aggravating circumstance, it means that the resonance is no longer the same."

France's 600,000-strong Jewish community, Europe's largest, came under rising anti-Semitic attacks earlier this decade, often from disaffected Muslim youths protesting against Israeli policy toward the Palestinians.

Ilan's uncle Rafi Halimi was quoted in the Israeli press as saying the family thought the killing was anti-Semitic and claiming the kidnappers had tried to capture two other Jews.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060220/..._kidnappers_dc

If you dig around you can find a lot more details to this story. Yes, it was a Muslim gang, yes, the koran was involved, yes it was an anti-Semitic doing, and yes, it is horrible. They tortured this guy to death. For 3 fucking weeks!