(APU GOMES / AFP via Getty Images)
Editor's note:
David Bittan Obadia is a lawyer, writer, political and international analyst, columnist for the newspaper El Universal de Venezuela and contributor to other media.
As a lecturer, he participated in the World Jewish Congress and was president of the Jewish community of Venezuela.
His Twitter account is @davidbittano.
The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author alone.
You can read more articles like this at cnne.com/opinion.
(CNN Spanish) -
On April 4, 2017, Sarah Halimi - a retired French doctor and teacher of the Jewish religion - was brutally assaulted, tortured, murdered and later thrown from the balcony of her residence, located on a third floor in Paris. .
The murderer was Kobili Traoré is a Muslim immigrant from Mali.
According to several witnesses, the attacker called her a demon and shouted "Allahu Akbar", (this means, Allah is great, in Arabic).
After throwing it out the window, he shouted: "A woman fell out of the window," tried to escape and was arrested.
Later, after trying to hide the crime, he confessed his authorship.
In recent days, the French Court of Cassation ruled that it had been an anti-Semitic crime but declared the defendant unimpeachable, considering that his "discernment was abolished due to drug use."
That decision is worrying because it opens the door for someone to use drugs to commit a crime and go free.
Using drugs to commit a crime, anywhere in the world, is an act of pure conscience in preparation, like murder.
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There is great concern in French society about the precedent that can be set and that someone uses drugs to commit crimes.
Even President Emmanuel Macron has publicly requested a reform of the criminal irresponsibility law.
This event has unleashed great indignation and several peaceful protests in various cities around the world, where Jewish communities and civil society cry out for justice, to prevent crime from going unpunished and, above all, that a criminal like this can enjoy that impunity.
Faced with such a daunting event, Justice will be very questioned and I cannot stop thinking, what would have happened if the murdered woman belonged to another religious group or minority?
I believe that in this case there has not been a notable protest from feminist organizations, which fight for the right of women to a life free of violence and who are more vehemently in solidarity with similar events.
As a trial lawyer who I have been for more than 30 years, I understand that the sentence is definitely questioned, since the forensic expert opinion has been divided into different opinions, according to what the press has revealed from the file, as well as the lawyer's statement from the victim's sister, who expressed in an interview with Franceinfo: “Some considered that Kobili Traoré's discernment was not abolished because he had deliberately taken drugs.
Besides, it was not the first time that he had delusional outbursts.
This has been a blatant hate crime and a clear example of the purest anti-Semitism.
It must be recognized that the highest court did recognize that character, but since the person responsible was not liable, he was not punished.
The Muslim majority in France is the one called to repudiate this death in a massive way, to collaborate and get involved in the fight against anti-Semitism and terrorism.
Otherwise, as I see it, Islamophobia could continue to increase.
Today Sarah Halimi is all of us;
not raising our voices for her and for her memory makes us accomplices of impunity.
"The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference" - Elie Wiesel
Antisemitism Murder