Murderers of Ilan Halimi Sentenced

One of the questions which often crops up here, in one form or another, is how much is an innocent human life worth?

In modern Europe, it seem that the innocent are worth a lot less than the guilty.

Some time ago I described the kidnap, torture and murder of a young French Jew called Ilan Halimi by a largely Muslim and African gang calling itself 'The Barbarians'.

The incredibly disturbing case highlights many things which are a growing problem in modern France; growing anti-semitism and a disenfranchised immigrant underclass hostile to the state, the mainstream culture and values of society and the French people.

Halimi was kidnapped and killed like an animal on the whims of an individual called Youssof Fofana, the son of immigrants from the Ivory Coast.

Here is a description of what became of Ilan Halimi, and two other disturbing cases of Islam-inspired anti-semitism in France from The Frozen North:

In January 2006, a young man named Ilan Halimi arranged a date with a woman he’d met in the shop where he worked. She was a member of “The Barbarians,” a gang who lay in wait for Halimi that night and kidnapped him.

Over the next three weeks, Halimi was held in a basement and tortured to death. Beaten, stabbed and burned over four fifths of his body, Halimi was eventually found handcuffed and abandoned in a field. Halimi died on the way to hospital.

Now, over three years later, Youssouf Fofana, the leader of “The Barbarians,” is being tried in Paris for the role he played in those crimes. Fofana “swaggered into court” and shouted out the takbir (Allahu Akbar). He has also stated that he has “friends” in court who can take photographs and identify jurors. Fofana had previously tried to escape justice by fleeing to the Ivory Coast, but he was quickly tracked down and extradited back to France.

Twenty six other members of Fofana’s “Barbarians” are facing charges as well; one of the most disturbing aspects of this crime is the way so many people participated in it. Several of the accused have admitted that Halimi was targeted because he was Jewish, and they believed that their victim’s family would be able to meet their ransom demands.

In 2008, in the same Parisian suburb of Bagneux where Ilan Halimi was held captive, six youths abducted Mathieu Roumi. They handcuffed and beat him, wrote “dirty jew” on his forehead, and told him that he would die the same way Ilan Halimi did before finally releasing him. The American writer Nidra Poller has also compared Halimi’s murder with the killing of Sebastien Selam, a twenty three year old who worked as a DJ in a Parisian nightclub, by one of his Muslim neighbours. Selam’s murderer not only “smote his victim above the neck,” he mutilated his face and eyes. The murderer then returned to his family home, where he told his mother that he would go to paradise because he had killed a Jew.

The gang apparently kidnapped Halimi because they thought 'Jews were loaded' and would be able to pay the ransom. They repeatedly rang Halimi's parents whilst he was being held and quoted verses of the Koran at them.

After the murder, Fofana fled to Ivory Coast, where he went into hiding and made a series of threatening phone calls to Halimi's family. He was arrested and extradited soon afterwards, and the trial has been held behind closed doors.

From day one, Fofana did his best to disrupt proceedings and make his true intent known:

Fofana, the son of Ivorian immigrants, raised his fist as he turned up in court at the start of the trial and proclaimed "Allah will conquer!" Asked to state his name, he answered "African Barbarian Armed Revolt Salafist."

From the beginning of the two-month trial, Fofana made repeated anti-Semitic declarations, threw his shoes at court staff and sacked all his lawyers.

Towards the end of his trial, Fofana told the court: "I would rather live like a lion for a day than as a sheep for one hundred."

Expelled from court in June for throwing his shoes at lawyers, Mr Fofana has often refused to answer questions.

But 24 days into his trial, he was asked about the fatal blows that Mr Halimi suffered and he yelled: "Yes, it's me that did it! You know very well that I did it!"

When asked for his date of birth, he repeatedly gave the date Halimi died. He mocked the victim's relatives, and threatened jurors and magistrates, telling them his men on the outside could 'fix' them.

This man is worse than an animal. He has no respect for anything or anyone, and is proud of being considered a brutal savage and the hatred he feels for the society which took his family in. He repeatedly wrote to magistrates working on the case, in letters filled with anti-semitic insults which tried to justify his crime 'because of the suffering in Palestine and Africa'.

Prosecutors described him as "a perverted, immature megalomaniac".

So taking all of the above into account, what sentence did he receive upon being convicted?

Life, with a minimum of 22 years.

The girl who lured Halimi to his death, of Iranian descent, will serve 9 years, whilst 22 other gang members received sentences ranging from 18 years to 6 months.

Ilan Halimi's family will now appeal as the they feel the sentences are unduly lenient.