Teenage suspect in France attack on rabbi sentenced to 16 months in prison

A teenager who attacked a rabbi in a central French city is sentenced to 16 months in prison by the juvenile court, after a long day of hearings in which he denied responsibility.

The attack took place last month as Rabbi Arie Engelberg was walking with his nine-year-old son from a synagogue in Orleans, about 110 kilometers (about 70 miles) south of Paris.

After the teenager was arrested, he told investigators that he was Palestinian, but later said during a hearing that he was Moroccan and 16 years old.

According to his lawyer, the teenager arrived less than a year ago in France, where he has no family.

He is given a 12-month sentence for the attack, as well as additional time in prison for other cases, including refusing to undergo police testing while in custody and possession of illegal narcotics after being found with two grams of cannabis resin.

He has been ordered to remain in detention, Orleans public prosecutor Emmanuelle Bochenek-Puren tells AFP, adding that the teenager has also been banned for five years from the Loiret department where the assault occurred.

“We have encountered a person who has denied any responsibility,” says the rabbi’s lawyer, Isabelle Abreu, criticizing the minor’s attitude of “denying everything” after several hours of a closed-door trial.

Accompanying Engelberg to the hearing is Andre Druon, president of the Jewish community of Orleans, who says the attacker “blamed everything on the rabbi” during the hearing.

“The attacker expressed no form of regret or compassion,” Druon says after the hearing.

“I have a community and a family to take care of, we have no choice but to move forward, and we do so with our heads held high,” Engelberg says, recalling that he defended himself against his attacker.