The prosecution requested a life sentence on Tuesday against Yacine Mihoub, 32, as well as 18 years in prison against Alex Carrimbacus, 25.
Both are accused of having killed at her home in Paris Mireille Knoll, an old Jewish lady whose murder had aroused great emotion in France and abroad.
They are judged for "having voluntarily given death to Mireille Knoll, with these circumstances that the acts were committed on a person whom they knew to be particularly vulnerable because of his physical or mental state and, moreover, because of the belonging of the victim to the Jewish religion ”.
Read alsoMireille Knoll, the joy of living destroyed on March 23
“It is of course with the question of anti-Semitism that we must start.
Obviously it is the subject of questions, which you will have to answer, ”declared Advocate General Jean-Christophe Muller at the start of his indictment before the Paris Assize Court.
The question of anti-Semitism
On March 23, 2018, firefighters called for a fire in an HLM in eastern Paris, discovered on her medical bed the body of Mireille Knoll stabbed with 11 stab wounds and partly charred.
The drama - which took place a year after the murder of Sarah Halimi, a Jewish sexagenarian thrown from her balcony - had sparked a great "white march" in Paris and revived the debate on anti-Semitism in France.
During the investigation and throughout the trial, the two defendants delivered conflicting versions, each incriminating the other for the murder, and dismissed the charges of anti-Semitism.
