French twins accused of chopping down memorial tree for slain Jewish man

French authorities have arrested twin brothers accused of cutting down an olive tree planted in memory of Ilan Halimi, a young French Jewish man tortured to death in 2006, prosecutors say.

The tree, planted in 2011 in Halimi’s memory, was felled earlier this month in the northern Paris suburb of Epinay-sur-Seine, in an act that stirred outrage in the country.

The suspects are to be tried immediately in a fast-track process for the racially or religiously aggravated desecration of a monument, the public prosecutor’s office in the Paris suburb of Bobigny says, confirming a report in French magazine Paris Match.

It is not immediately clear when they were arrested or precisely when the trial would take place. Their identities are also not made public.

Paris Match reported that both men were of Tunisian nationality and did not have a permanent address. It said they had been identified through DNA.

Halimi was kidnapped by a gang of around 20 youths in January 2006 and tortured in a low-income housing estate in the Paris suburb of Bagneux over three weeks. He died while being taken to a hospital and prosecutors later determined the killing to be motivated by antisemitism.

French President Emmanuel Macron had condemned the felling of the tree, vowing punishment for what he called an act of antisemitic “hatred.”

The incident stoked fresh concerns about an increase in antisemitic acts and hate crimes in France as international tensions mount over Gaza.

Officials have pledged to plant a new tree “as soon as possible.”