Posted on 07/10/2009 5:30:40 PM PDT by Mount Athos
Youssouf Fofana, leader of a kidnap gang who called themselves "The Barbarians", has been sentenced to life in prison for an anti-Semitic murder of shocking brutality.
Fofana, 28, masterminded the kidnap, torture and murder of Jewish shop clerk Ilan Halimi in 2006.
Halimi went missing on January 20, 2006 while on a date with a girl he had met at his workplace.
The girl, now 21, was one of Fofana's accomplices. She was instructed to lure Halimi to the basement of a building in a Paris suburb where he was subsequently attacked and subdued with ether.
Halimi was tortured for 24 days. Fofana stabbed Halimi and doused his body with alcohol before setting him alight.
His naked and badly burned body was dumped, handcuffed to a tree near a railway track. Halimi died on his way to hospital.
The killing of 23-year-old Ilan Halimi sparked a debate on anti-Semitism in France, as police initially refused to consider the kidnapping a hate crime because the gang tried to extort a ransom from Halimi's family.
However, the brutal nature of the torture and subsequent murder prompted prosecutors to demand a life sentence becuase of the murder's anti-Semitic nature.
Fofana, the son of Ivorian immigrants, raised his fist as he turned up in court at the start of the trial and proclaimed "Allah will conquer!"
Asked to state his name, he answered "African Barbarian Armed Revolt Salafist."
From the beginning of the two-month trial, Fofana made repeated anti-Semitic declarations, threw his shoes at court staff and sacked all his lawyers.
A nine-person jury was chosen before the judge imposed a media blackout, which is normal in French courts when juveniles are in the dock. The trial was heard by the special tribunal because two of the defendants, including the girl, were minors when the crime was committed.
Francis Szpiner, the lawyer representing the Halimi family, said he would lodge an appeal against some of the sentences the family considers "lenient".
...he shouldn’t sweat it...in another generation or less the Muslims will topple France, storm the prison and cut him loose....he’ll get an “early release” just like the Bastile prisoners in 1789 did.
Even in liberal California, you're a goner for a crime such as this -- even if it took 22 years to finally carry out the sentence.
He got off light.
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