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Three Men Charged in Brutal Anti-Semitic Attacks Outside of Paris

The suspects are accused of targeting their victims, in two separate attacks in the last month, because they were Jewish and would have money.
image via Wikimedia Commons

Three suspects were charged on Wednesday in connection with a violent pair of anti-semitic attacks on a young couple and an elderly man, all of whom were Jewish, in their suburban Paris homes that were carried out in the last month.

While two of the suspects were reportedly detained soon after the most recent attack occurred on Monday — found with the victims' jewelry on them — authorities announced that the third male suspect was arrested on Wednesday. French officials said the men reportedly picked their victims due to the fact that they were Jewish and would have money.

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All three showed up in court and had their bonds set Wednesday night. The first two suspects were handed preliminary charges for violence motivated by religion, with the third charged as an accomplice.

The incident occurred on Monday, when three armed men forced their way into an apartment. According to a statement released by the prosecutor's office, the men were "masked, gloved, and armed with handguns." The apartment's tenants were away at the time, but their 21-year-old son and his 19-year-old girlfriend were present.

The young man and the young woman were tied up, while the men withdrew money with the couple's credit cards from a nearby ATM, stole jewelry, and raped the woman.

Speaking to French radio channel Europe 1 after the attack, the 21-year-old male victim described the attack. "As soon as they walked in," he said. "They told us: we're here for a reason. You Jews have money. And Jews don't put their money in the bank, so it must be here."

According to the victim, the assailants were targeting his brother — a salesman in a local mall — mistaking him for a manager, and believing he carried large sums of cash home with him.

Speaking to French daily Libération, one of the investigating officers described the three men who have been arrested — all between the ages of 18 and 20 — as "two black men and one North-African guy, previously known for robberies, assaults, and drug trafficking offenses."

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The public prosecutor said the the suspects have also been charged in connection to an earlier attack carried out in the same neighborhood, in which a 70-year-old-man was beaten inside his home on November 10. According to the victim, the attackers had also made anti-Semitic remarks.

The incident brings to mind the brutal murder of Ilan Halimi, a young Jewish cellphone salesman who was abducted, sequestered, and tortured in Paris in 2006. A total of 27 people — who called themselves The Gang of the Barbarians — were implicated in the attack. The attackers had assumed that since the young man was Jewish, his family was inevitably wealthy, and would pay a large ransom for his release. Following three weeks of detention, the young man was discovered on the side of train tracks near Paris with multiple stab wounds. He later died as a result of his injuries.

According to a report on anti-Semitism published by France's Jewish community protection service, 40 percent of racist attacks carried out in France in 2013 were against Jews. The organization also notes that, in the first seven months of 2014, anti-Semitic attacks in France have almost doubled since the previous year.

France currently has the largest Jewish population in Europe, and is home to some 500,000 to 600,000 Jews.

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Follow Mélodie Bouchaud on Twitter:@meloboucho

Image via Wikimedia Commons.