For this 11-year-old student, back to school was a nightmare.
On September 7, he walks in the playground of the Olympes de Gouges college, in Champcueil (Essonne), with two comrades.
Two students older than them, aged 14, go to meet them.
“They asked everyone:
Are you a Jew?
»Confides a judicial source.
If the first two answer no, the last nods.
He then suffered a plethora of anti-Semitic insults and physical violence.
"One of the two attackers told him:
dirty Jew, we are going to gass you
by putting his hand over his mouth
",
continues a source close to the file.
He took the victim by the neck, pressed her to his armpit and asked him to submit.
The two teenagers string together the Nazi salutes.
Read also Essonne: the fight against anti-Semitism begins at a young age
The victim will be harassed for nine days by the two accused, until September 16.
Upon discovering the facts, the boy's parents filed a complaint on September 18 with the Ballancourt-sur-Essonne gendarmerie for “anti-Semitic violence”, which triggered the opening of an investigation.
Nazi salutes
The two teenagers were heard on the facts.
One admitted that he did not even know what the gesture of the Nazi salute meant, but that he had seen it in a photo in a history book, specifies a source close to the investigation.
The second, more virulent, admitted that he knew Nazism and its codes.
He has since written a letter of apology to the eleven-year-old student.
The psychological expert who examined the young victim judged him to be upset by this aggression, which had a strong “psychological, even psychosomatic” impact.
In this rural and rather quiet corner of Essonne, the case calls out.
According to a source familiar with the matter, the investigation did not reveal any problematic family environments, with parents or relatives with an anti-Semitic tendency.
The two teenagers, from towns not really known for their delinquency, are also unknown to the courts.
Their motives have not been clearly established.
"One of the two, the one who struck, is addicted to war video games, it is perhaps there that he learned what he reproduced", supposes a judicial source.
They will be tried in the juvenile court
The authors will soon be tried by the Évry-Courcouronnes juvenile court.
Given their lack of history and their age, and because they have admitted the facts, they could face a criminal composition.
Or an alternative to prosecution, which would lead them to compensate the victim and complete a citizenship course.
This citizenship course could be carried out at the Shoah Memorial, with which the Evry-Courcouronnes public prosecutor's office has just signed an agreement.
It is aimed at adults, but also minors from 13 years old.
Over a day and a half, it gives them food for thought on racism, anti-Semitism, the study of genocide and online hatred.
Read also Essonne: associations and magistrates want to do better to fight racism
Since 2019, the Evry prosecutor's office has set up a “racism” referent magistrate to speed up procedures.
Due to a lack of evidence, in some cases, complaints of racism and anti-Semitism are difficult to achieve.
"You should not hesitate to film with your phone or to take witnesses", underlined the prosecutor of the Republic of Essonne, Caroline Nisand.
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