A FRENCH court yesterday jailed three young men who carried out a notorious anti-Semitic rape-robbery in a Paris suburb in 2014.
Abdou Salam Koita, 26, and Ladje Haidara, 23, who committed the rape, were in court to hear the verdict.
Houssame Hatri, 22, who made anti-Semitic slurs during the December 2014 attack, remains on the run.
They were given jail terms of eight, 13 and 16 years, respectively, by the court in Val-de-Marne, southeast of the French capital.
The three were hooded and armed when they attacked a young couple in an apartment in the Creteil suburb of Paris.
During the attack, they bound and gagged the victims before searching the apartment and making off with jewellery and bank cards.
“Jews do not put money in the bank,” one of them was heard saying.
Hatri had said the attack was “for my brothers in Palestine”, before suggesting that the perpetrators should “gas” the victims with tear gas.
Defence lawyer Marie Dose denied that her clients are anti-Semitic, saying “they were ignorant”.
Two accomplices received sentences of five and six years in jail.
Victims Jonathan and Laurine, both 23, were at the home of Jonathan’s parents when the attack happened.
The female victim, just 19 at the time, was raped.
Hatri had asked her if she was Jewish, the court heard.
“I am nothing,” she had replied.
Following the crime, the French government declared the battle against anti-Semitism to be a “national cause”. – AFP, July 7, 2018.
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