Macron ‘appalled’ by Holocaust victim’s murder, vows to fight anti-Semitism

Hundreds scheduled to attend a silent march in the memory of Mireille Knoll, 85, on Wednesday in Paris

French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the suspected murder of a Holocaust survivor in Paris, which he called “appalling” before vowing to fight anti-Semitism.

Macron made the comment on Twitter on Tuesday about the March 23 slaying of Mireille Knoll, 85, whose torched body was found with 11 stab wounds inside her apartment.

Mireille Knoll, 85, a Holocaust survivor who was found murdered in her Paris apartment (Courtesy)

Prosecutors on Monday indicted two defendants, including one of her neighbors, in connection with what is being tried as a murder with aggravated circumstances of a hate crime. They are also charged with robbery.

“I am deeply affected by the appalling crime committed against Mrs. Knoll. I reaffirm my resolute determination to fight against anti-Semitism,” Macron wrote.

Hundreds of French Jews and non-Jews are scheduled to attend a silent march in her memory Wednesday in Paris.

Sammy Ghozlan, founder of the National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA, on Tuesday told JTA that “authorities on the national level acted swiftly and correctly” in dealing with the investigation. It was “a lesson learnt” from the handling of the slaying of another Jewish woman, Sarah Halimi, last year, he said.

Sarah Halimi (Courtesy of the Confédération des Juifs de France et des amis d’Israël)

In April, BNVCA and the CRIF federation of French Jewish communities were among several French Jewish organizations that protested the omission of hate crime charges from the draft indictment of a Muslim man who confessed to killing Halimi, a 66-year-old physician, in her apartment.

The defendant, Kobili Traore, was heard calling Halimi, his neighbor, “a demon.” Halimi’s daughter said he had called the daughter a “dirty Jew” two years before he pummeled her mother in her apartment for over 30 minutes and threw Sarah Halimi to her death from her three-story home.

CRIF called the omission of hate crime charges a “cover-up.” They were finally included in a revised indictment following weeks of vocal lobbying by Jewish groups.

The controversy was among several similar cases in recent years, including a case last month in which a judge scrapped hate crime charges from the indictment of Arab youths who allegedly assaulted a Jewish teenager and took his kippah.

A similar exchange occurred after French prosecutors last year dropped hate crime charges in the case of four men suspected of rape and robbery at a suburban Paris home they acknowledged was targeted because it belonged to Jews. Following protests, the aggravated element also was added to their indictment.