3 boys arrested

Paris: 12-year-old raped because she is Jewish

The victim went to the police quickly after the attack.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com/forma82)

This brutal act shocked France: in the Parisian suburb of Courbevoie, three boys aged twelve and 13 allegedly raped and abused a twelve-year-old girl - a Jewess - for anti-Semitic reasons. The three suspects have been arrested.

The girl was in Henri Regnault Park near her home on Saturday evening when two boys blocked her way and dragged her into a vacant building. There, the third youth joined them and insulted the twelve-year-old as a "dirty Jewess", as the daily newspaper "Le Figaro" reported, citing police documents.

Threatened with death
The girl was then beaten, thrown to the ground and photographed. One of the attackers held a burning lighter to her cheek and threatened to "burn" her. The twelve-year-old was then forced to have sexual intercourse. The youths are said to have threatened to kill her if she told the police.

After the perpetrators had fled, the girl told her parents at home about the crime, whereupon they alerted the police. Together with the friend with whom the twelve-year-old was traveling, she was able to describe the suspects. The public prosecutor's office in the Paris suburb of Nanterre commissioned the Territorial Brigade for the Protection of the Family to investigate. They were able to arrest the three suspected juvenile perpetrators, as reported by "Le Figaro".

Rape "out of revenge"?
The anti-Semitic background of the crime was further confirmed when a photo of a burning Israeli flag was discovered on the cell phone of one of the boys, reported the news portal "Le Nouveau Detective". The youth in question was the victim's ex-boyfriend. The newspaper "Le Parisien" reported that the boy was angry because the girl had allegedly concealed the fact that she was Jewish. Under interrogation, the boys are said to have partially admitted to the attack. They are also said to have stated that they acted out of revenge, wrote the "Parisien".

Two teenagers (both 13) were charged on Tuesday evening by the Nanterre public prosecutor's office with gang rape, death threats, insults and violence. The third (12) was called as a witness in the rape case and was also charged with the other offenses. The offenses of insult and violence are aggravated by the fact that they were motivated by anti-Semitism, the public prosecutor's office explained.

Youths in police custody
The two 13-year-olds were taken into police custody, and the 12-year-old was given a provisional educational measure. In France, there is no age limit for the age of criminal responsibility. However, offenders under the age of 18 cannot be punished as adults and must appear before a juvenile court judge. Imprisonment can only be imposed once they reach the age of 13.

Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the number of anti-Semitic acts in France, as in many other countries, has skyrocketed. Almost 13% of anti-Semitic attacks in the country took place in schools.