Five Held After Jewish Cemetery Defiled in France

Wall St. Journal ^ | February 16, 2015 | Jason Chow

[grundle]

PARIS—French police detained five teenage boys for questioning in relation to the desecration of a Jewish cemetery in the eastern part of the country, an incident that has raised anxiety among French Jews about their security.

Philippe Vannier, a French state prosecutor in Saverne in the Alsace region, told a news conference on Monday that one teen had turned himself in, which then led the police to four others who are suspected of knocking over and vandalizing about 250 out of the 400 tombstones at the cemetery.

Mr. Vannier said the five youths “had no known ideological views that could explain their behavior,” adding that the teenager who spoke to police denies “any form of anti-Semitism.”

“They claim they realized the tombs were Jewish after they had already started [their vandalism] and they thought the cemetery was abandoned,” Mr. Vannier said.

If charged and convicted of damaging public property and vandalizing a burial site because of the religion of the deceased, the youths could face a maximum of seven years in prison, though any time could be halved because of their age, according to the prosecutor’s office.

[Jack Hydrazine]

The perps are yoots!

[MAKOTHEDOG]

Muhhamad, Ali, Aknod, Rahim and Allah

[SunkenCiv]

• France: 5 Arrested over Shocking Vandalism of 300 Jewish Graves
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• Hundreds of tombs defaced in French Jewish cemetery