Sarah Halimi

This decision by the Cour de Cassation, France’s highest court of appeals, to not bring Kobili Traoré, the Muslim murderer of Halimi, to trial because he had been under the influence of marijuana when he beat her nearly to death and then threw her out of the window of her Paris apartment, has provoked indignation and fury among French Jews and many non-Jews.

French President Macron was quick to express his own indignation, and his intention to have that law relied on changed. His response is reported on here: “French President Macron Seeks to Reassure Angry, Disappointed Jewish Community After Top Court Decides Against Trial of Accused Antisemitic Killer,” by Ben Cohen, Algemeiner, April 19, 2021:

French President Emmanuel Macron has called for a change in his country’s laws on criminal responsibility, following last week’s decision by France’s highest appeal court to excuse from trial the accused antisemitic murderer of a Jewish woman on the ground that his intake of cannabis supposedly rendered him temporarily insane on the night of the killing.

Speaking to the newspaper Le Figaro on Sunday, the French president was asked about last Wednesday’s decision by the Court of Cassation not to try Kobili Traoré for the brutal murder of Sarah Halimi in April 2017. The court argued that since Traore had imbibed what it termed an “acute delirious puff” on a marijuana joint that eliminated his “discernment” — or self-awareness — he could not “be judged criminally even when his mental state was caused by the regular consumption of drugs.” Macron argued that the use of narcotics should not be a reason to remove the criminal liability of an offender.

In American law, a defendant charged with the use of narcotics or alcohol before committing a crime does not remove or limit criminal liability; if anything, it is likely to increase the punishment.

What we know about the killing is that it was an antisemitic crime: Sarah Halimi was Jewish, and her killer knew that. He hated Jews. He identified her with “Shaytan” (Satan).

She was the only Jewish person in the entire apartment complex. That was all her killer needed to know about her. Had she not been Jewish, he would not have murdered her. He was particularly enraged, remember, by the sight of her mezuzah. He had grown up, as a devout Muslim, taught to hate Jews. He knew about the from his holy book, the Qur’an. As Robert Spencer notes, “the Qur’an depicts the Jews as inveterately evil and bent on destroying the wellbeing of the Muslims. All about Jew Hatred here....................

Traoré was both a drug dealer and a habitual user of cannabis. He was, in other words, used to it. He led the life of a normal criminal and welfare crook, battening on all the benefits the French welfare state lavishes on its migrant population, so many of whom are Muslim.

“Deciding to take narcotics and then going ‘like crazy’ should not in my eyes remove your criminal responsibility,” Macron stated during the interview. “On this subject, I would like the Minister of Justice to present a change in the law as soon as possible.”

Macron also sought to reassure France’s Jewish community that they had his understanding and sympathy. Jewish leaders reacted furiously to the court’s decision, with Francis Kalifat — president of Jewish representative body CRIF — tweeting, “now in our country, we can torture and kill Jews with impunity.”

“It is not for me to comment on a court decision, but I would like to tell the family, relatives of the victim and all our fellow citizens of the Jewish faith who were awaiting this trial, my warm support and the determination of the Republic to protect them,” Macron said. “In the Republic, we do not judge citizens who are sick and no longer have discernment, we treat them. But deciding to take drugs and then becoming ‘like crazy’ should not in my eyes remove your criminal responsibility.”

During a visit to Israel in Jan. 2020, one month after a lower court deemed that Traoré was unfit for trial, Macron told a group of French Jews in Jerusalem that when it came to the Halimi case, “the need for a trial is there.” This remark earned him the rebuke of the Court of Cassation’s top officials, who reminded Macron that “the independence of the judiciary is an essential condition for the functioning of democracy.”

In a separate development on Monday, Sarah Halimi’s brother confirmed that lawyers for the family would try to appeal the case before the European Court of Human Rights. “I will continue fighting, our family will continue fighting,” William Attal said in an interview with broadcaster I-24.

It was not smoking cannabis – which was a regular part of his routine, and he was long inured to being high — that led Kobili Traoré, upset about a family quarrel, to quite deliberately seek out Sarah Halimi. This wasn’t a sudden crazed outburst. There was calculation; there was malice aforethought. Once inside, he proceeded to beat her and then to throw her out the third-floor window.

This was not the act of a brain-addled “temporarily insane” drug addict. There was calculation in gaining entry to her apartment, there was malice aforethought in choosing the victim. It was the act of a Muslim who, in his long-accustomed marijuana high, and his blood boiling because of a family quarrel, had decided to take out his fury on the only Jew he could find, the sole representative in his building of the “Jews” he had been brought up to hate.

It was not Kobili Traoré’s inhalation that day of the cannabis that caused him to murder Sarah Halimi, but his inhalation, since childhood, of the antisemitic passages in the Qur’an.