The suspected leader of a gang that tortured and killed a young Jewish man in Paris has been arrested in the Ivory Coast

Philippe Naughton:

The murder of Ilan Halimi, 23, has infuriated France's Jewish leaders, who complained that police and authorities deliberately played down his kidnappers' anti-Semitic motives for fear of alienating French Muslims.

M Halimi, a mobile phone salesman, was kidnapped in January after being lured into a honeytrap and was then held for three weeks on an immigrant estate south of Paris while the gang demanded ransom payments from his parents.

He was discovered ten days ago near a suburban train station, lying naked, handcuffed, gagged and covered in burns and torture marks but died on the way to hospital.

President Chirac and Dominique de Villepin, his Prime Minister, are to attend a memorial service for the murdered man at the main Paris synagogue. Both men have promised that M Halimi's killers will be tracked down and punished.

The gang's suspected leader, Youssouf Fofana, a Frenchman of Ivorian origin, fled to Ivory Coast shortly after the killing, where he was tracked down and arrested.

M de Villepin said today that M Fofana could be extradited "within hours", although prosecutors in Paris and Abidjan said that it might take a week to complete the extradition process.

So far 13 members or suspected associates of the gang, which called itself "the Barbarians", have been arrested, including the concierge of the building where Halimi was held.

Police initially denied any racial aspect to the Halimi murder, even though the same gang was thought to have tried to kidnap six other Paris residents, four of them Jewish.

On Monday, however, investigators added racial hatred to the kidnapping and murder charges faced by the suspects.

The kidnappers are alleged to have referred to M Halimi’s Jewish background in their telephone and e-mail demands to the family for ransom, and one of the young torturers was reported by accomplices to have stubbed out a cigarette on M Halimi’s forehead while voicing his hatred for Jews.

One intended victim, a 50-year-old Jewish man identified as Michael, told how he had been lured to an estate and knocked out with a blow to the head from a pistol butt. He had been saved after residents called police, but spent a week in hospital.

According to unconfirmed reports in the Jewish community of Paris, at least one family has recently paid a ransom for the release of a kidnapped child.

Ruth Halimi said that her son might still be alive had the police not evaded the nature of his kidnapping as they were negotiating over ransom.

"We told the police that there had been at least three other attempted abductions of young Jews, but they persisted in considering the motives purely criminal because they are afraid of reviving a clash with the Muslims," she said.

French denial

'Gang leader' held in Africa after murder of kidnapped Jew

Extradition for 'kidnap gang boss'