French teens sentenced for 2024 antisemitic rape of Jewish girl

Three French teenagers have been sentenced for the gang rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in 2024 outside Paris.

Two teenagers, aged 13 at the time of the attack, have been sentenced to nine and seven years in prison on Friday, according to the ruling at the juvenile court in Nanterre, a Paris suburb. The third, the ex-boyfriend of the girl who was 12 at the time, was also found guilty, but could not be sentenced to jail time due to his age. He will be placed in closed foster care for five years, according to reports.

All three boys were charged with sexual assault on a minor as well as recording and sharing sexual images, aggravated by being committed on religious grounds.

The evidence clearly showed that the girl would not have been raped if she were not Jewish, the judge says.

On June 15, 2024, the girl was allegedly approached by the three boys in a park near her home in the northwestern Paris suburb of Courbevoie, close to the La Defense financial district.

She was dragged into a shed where the suspects beat her and “forced” her to have sex while uttering death threats and antisemitic remarks,” according to police reports.

The incident sparked outrage throughout France, with hundreds taking to the streets to protest after the attack. The year-long delay to prepare for the trial has added to the Jewish community’s anger as antisemitism in France continues to skyrocket.

Antisemitism in France has reached historic levels since Hamas launched its war against Israel on October 7, 2023. The country saw nearly 1,570 antisemitic acts in 2024 and a record 1,676 in 2023, according to the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF), an umbrella body of French Jewish groups.