France: Family of brutally murdered Jewish woman filing for Islamist killer’s extradition to Israel for trial

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The family of Sarah Halimi, an Orthodox Jewish woman who was murdered by Islamist Kobili Traoré in France on April 4 2017, is to file a legal claim for the killer to be extradited to Israel for trial, BBC News reported last week. Traoré claimed he was in a drug-induced delirium at the time of the brutal slaying, and a French court has found he cannot therefore be held criminally responsible under the country’s law. Outrage over the court’s decision caused thousands of people to protest in New York, Paris, Rome and Tel Aviv this weekend.

Having broken into the apartment where 65 year-old Ms Halimi lived alone, Kobili Traoré proceeded to beat her up, chanting ‘Alahu Akbar’ and other verses from the Quran in Arabic. He then threw Ms Halimi off her third floor balcony.

One of France’s highest courts, the Cour de Cassation, confirmed earlier this month that Traoré would not stand trial because he had been in a “delirious episode” induced by self-intoxication with drugs when he killed Ms Halimi, BBC News said. Nevertheless, the court accepted the murder had been anti-Semitic in nature.

Ms Halimi’s sister, Esther Lekover, now plans to fight for Traoré to be extradited to Israel for trial: Israel’s criminal law may apply when an Israeli citizen such as Ms Lekover reports an anti-Semitic crime committed abroad.

In a statement, Ms Lekover’s attorneys said they “deplore being forced to expedite this procedure,” but they “cannot accept a denial of justice which offends reason and fairness far beyond the Jewish community of France.”

Lawyers for the Halimi family reportedly plan to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights as well, BBC News said. France’s President Emmanuel Macron has called for a change in the current law, telling French media: “Deciding to take narcotics and then ‘going mad’ should, not in my view, remove your criminal responsibility.” Traoré is in a psychiatric hospital at this time.

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