French court sentences 4 Bulgarians to jail for defacing Holocaust memorial

Judges say the vandalism, which occurred amid post-Oct. 7 antisemitism surge, was meant to ‘stir up public opinion, exploit existing divisions and further fragment French society’

By AFP 1 November 2025, 2:17 am

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The "Wall of the Righteous" (Mur des Justes) outside the Shoah Memorial in Paris, France, is vandalized with red-hands graffiti, May 14, 2024. (Antonin Utz / AFP)

PARIS — A French court on Friday sentenced four Bulgarians to between two and four years in prison for desecrating a Jewish memorial with red handprints last year, in what prosecutors think may have been foreign interference linked to Russia.

The Paris Criminal Court handed down two-year sentences to Georgi Filipov and Kiril Milushev, described as the perpetrators, and four and three years respectively to Nikolay Ivanov and Mircho Angelov, considered the operation’s “masterminds.” Angelov is still at large.

All four were also banned from entering French territory for life.

The trial was the first of its kind in France, one of a series of similar cases suspected of having been orchestrated by a foreign power with the aim to destabilise.

The four defendants were not tried for acting on behalf of a foreign power: that aggravating circumstance was only added to France’s criminal code after the incident took place.

However, in their judgement, the judges said foreign interference was “indisputable” and aimed to “stir up public opinion, exploit existing divisions and further fragment French society.”

Bulgarian police officers escort Kiril Milushev one of the three suspects linked to the defacing of the Paris Holocaust memorial in a court in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, on August 5, 2024. (Nikolay DOYCHINOV / AFP)

‘Russian intelligence’

The vandalism was staged during heightened tensions in France over the war in Gaza that broke out when Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, which fueled a global surge in antisemitism.

The wall daubed with red handprints by the perpetrators lists 3,900 people honored for protecting Jews during the Nazi occupation of France in World War II.

Several other red handprints were found in nearby areas of central Paris.

A picture shows red hand graffiti painted on buildings’ walls of the Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie street, in the area where earlier the Holocaust memorial was vandalized with the same red handprints in Paris, on May 14, 2024. (Antonin Utz/ AFP)

The prosecutor’s office said a security agent had caught two people placing stencils on the memorial.

Investigators identified them with security footage, then discovered that three had caught a bus to Belgium the next morning, then a flight to Bulgaria.

The defendants present were quick to blame their absent accomplice, calling Angelov the “leader,” denying any ideological motivation.

Georgi Filipov, one of the three suspects linked to the defacing of the Paris Holocaust memorial speaks to journalists in a court in Sofia, Bulgaria, on August 7, 2024. (Nikolay DOYCHINOV / AFP)

Defendant Georgi Filipov swore he did not realize he was tagging the Wall of the Righteous.

During the trial, he also rejected accusations that his recruitment was related to his apparent neo-Nazi affiliations, including having a swastika tattoo and appearing in social media posts giving Nazi salutes.

He said he’d left that behind — “I’ve made bad choices in the past.”

The Paris prosecutor’s office said the red handprint incident, possibly “orchestrated by Russian intelligence services,” was one of nine such suspected acts of foreign interference.

Other suspicious incidents include Stars of David stencilled in the Paris region in October 2023; coffins bearing the words “French soldiers of Ukraine” left at the foot of the Eiffel Tower in June last year; and in just this September, pigs’ heads left in front of mosques in the Paris region.

Viginum, the French authority monitoring foreign interference online, said the red hand incident had been exploited by “actors linked to Russia” on X.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.