Macron says Israel "needs trial" in Sarah Halimi case

It is not usual for a head of state to speak on a court case. In front of members of the French community established in Israel, Emmanuel Macron nevertheless chose to evoke the fate of Sarah Halimi, this 65-year-old Jewish woman, severely beaten and then defenestrated in April 2017, in the Belleville district, a month after the much-maligned decision of the Paris Court of Appeal. On December 19, she declared the criminal irresponsibility of Kobili Traore, the man presumed guilty of having killed his neighbor with cries of "Allah o akbar". According to reports from psychiatric experts, he was in the grip of an "acute delusional puff".

"I know how much emotion in this context is still strong after the decision rendered by the Paris Court of Appeal," began the president before taking all the necessary precautions. "From where I speak to you, I cannot speak to you from the heart because I am the guarantor of the independence of justice, of the cardinal principles of our penal code. The President of the Republic does not have to comment on a court decision or pretend to question it. "

"The question of anti-Semitism is the affair of the Republic"

Emmanuel Macron will still speak on this file, while the civil parties' lawyers have appealed to the Court of Cassation. "This is a possible route through law," sketches the president. But I have received so many letters, heard so much emotion, seen so much rage, anger at the idea, basically, that justice will never be done. He reminds us that French justice has recognized the anti-Semitic nature of this crime. And to continue: “I know the request for trial which must be held. The question of criminal responsibility is the affair of the judges, the question of anti-Semitism is that of the Republic. "

Emmanuel Macron insists and pleads for the holding of such a judicial meeting. "Even if in the end the judge had to decide that the criminal responsibility was not there," he said, "the need for a trial was there. The need for all voices to be expressed, to say to each other, and for us to understand what happened, so that what a whole trial involves reparation by what it is itself can be held . We need it in the Republic. "

It was not the first time that he had spoken on the matter. He had already intervened in this trial when he received Benjamin Netanyahu in 2017 during the commemoration of the Vel d'Hiv roundup, believing that the anti-Semitic nature of this murder should be recognized.