Several young people, 12, 13 and 14 years old, raped a 12-year-old girl in France in broad daylight. At least one of them is said to have justified the act by saying that he wanted revenge: the girl, allegedly his former girlfriend, had concealed from him that she was Jewish. The act of violence with a presumably anti-Semitic background took place last month in a suburb of Paris. But details have only now become known. The newspaper “Le Parisien” reported on it, citing people close to the investigation.
The girl is said to have met her current boyfriend in a park. On the way home, at around 5 p.m., she was stopped by two young people who harassed her and finally dragged her into an abandoned building. A third joined her there. The boys not only beat the girl but also raped her several times. The tormentors are said to have threatened her and called her a “dirty Jew”. They also announced that they would spread the photos they had taken of their victim on social media. They threatened the girl that she would have to expect that her family would also be harmed if she told the police about what had happened. They also demanded that the girl bring them 200 euros the following day.
The 12-year-old told her parents what had happened to her that same evening. They took her to the police and filed a complaint. A medical examination has since determined that the girl was indeed raped. The responsible public prosecutor’s office confirmed to the media that two of the suspects had been temporarily arrested. The third had been placed in a youth facility for the time being because of his young age.
The public prosecutor’s office announced that all three had expressed regret to the victim during questioning, but had said nothing about their role in the crime. “Le Parisien” reports, again citing people close to the investigation, that one of the boys was a former boyfriend of the girl. Pictures of a burned Israeli flag were found on his phone. A second young man also said during questioning that he resented the victim for making negative comments about Palestine.
Little else is known about the three suspects. They are said to come from Rueil-Malmaison, another suburb also west of Paris. Neither Rueil-Malmaison nor Courbevoie are considered particularly precarious residential areas. The district in which the crime took place is in the immediate vicinity of the “La Défense” business district.
The shocking incident was immediately taken up by politicians from various camps. Both representatives of Emmanuel Macron’s presidential party and Marine Le Pen blamed the La France Insoumise (LFI) movement for the crime because it denies anti-Semitism in France. However, LFI boss Jean-Luc Mélenchon was quick to condemn the act on Wednesday and describe it as anti-Semitic. At the beginning of June he had claimed that anti-Semitism was a marginal phenomenon in France. Marine Le Pen sees things differently, writing on Platform X that the “stigmatization of Jews by the extreme left” is a threat to peace.
Since Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on October 7 last year, anti-Semitic incidents in France have multiplied. In the first quarter of this year, the authorities recorded a 300 percent increase in reported cases compared to the same period in 2023.
All publishing rights and copyrights reserved to MENA Research Center.
