French police seeking suspect in anti-Semitic murder head for Africa

Bloomberg:

French police are heading for Ivory Coast to seek the head of a gang that kidnapped, tortured and murdered a young Parisian Jew, as seven accomplices were charged with an anti-Semitic hate crime, the prosecutor's office said.

The alleged gang leader, Youssef Fofana, 25, who calls himself the "Brain of the Barbarians" and who is of Ivorian origin, fled on a flight to Abidjan under his own name on Feb. 15. Ten accomplices are under investigation for killing Ilan Halimi, and two more will be charged today, Laurence Abgrall- Bauge, the Paris prosecutor's spokeswoman, said.

Seven of the gang also face hate charges. Investigating magistrate Corinne Goetzmann put six men and one woman under investigation yesterday for "criminal association with the intention of committing a premeditated murder because of the victim's membership or non-membership, real or imagined, of an ethnic group, nation, race or religion."

Halimi, 23, a salesman in a telephone store, was kidnapped on Jan. 21 after he was led to his kidnappers by a young woman with whom he had a date and who is among those arrested. Police found Halimi dying in the southern Paris suburb of Sainte- Genevieve-Des-Bois more than three weeks later on Feb. 13. He was naked, gagged and handcuffed with signs of burns and other torture.

The killing sparked outrage among Paris Jews. Hundreds marched on Feb. 19 to demand justice. A fringe of young activists shouting slogans calling for revenge smashed shop windows and damaged cars, Europe 1 reported.

"If Ilan hadn't been Jewish, he wouldn't have been murdered," Halimi's mother, Ruth, told Israeli newspaper Haaretz. She said police failed to tackle the anti-Semitic motives behind his kidnapping because they are "afraid to reignite the confrontation with the Muslims."

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Racism a factor in murder of Jew, says magistrate

Racism link to torture killing

France probes Ivorian kidnap link

Torture and Murder of French Jew by Muslim Gang–Not Anti-Semitic