Rape victim | File Image
‘Raped at 12 because she was Jewish’
By Sam Janes
The police have arrested three boys aged between 12 and 13 for gang-raping a Jewish 12 years old girl in the northwestern Paris suburb of Courbevoie on Saturday evening.
The three suspects were arrested after another girl who witnessed how the Jewish girl was whisked away, raped and filmed by the suspects.
French Police source said that one of boys asked their victim questions about “her Jewish religion” and Israel.
The rape was filmed by one boy and another threatened to kill the girl if she told authorities about her ordeal, police sources said.
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The source also confirmed that a friend who was with her in the park identified two of the attackers, leading to the arrest of the three boys on Monday.
Two of them, both aged 13, were charged on Tuesday with gang rape, anti-Semitic insults and violence, and issuing death threats. They have been taken into custody by the police.
The third boy, 12, was charged with anti-Semitic insults and violence and issuing death threats, but not with rape. He was allowed to return home.
The prosecution service said in a statement that the accused boys had “expressed regret towards the victim without discussing their implication in the facts” of the case.
The gang-rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl sparked nationwide outrage in France with President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday condemning the “scourge” of anti-Semitism after two 13-year-old boys were charged.
Amid recriminations between rival political parties campaigning for a national election later this month, hundreds took part in demonstrations against anti-Semitism in Paris and Lyon.
France has the largest Jewish community of any country outside Israel and the United States as well as Europe’s largest Muslim community.
