| After the initial denials, France seems to be investigating all aspects of the case. |
A magistrate investigating his death has extended her inquiries to include the possibility that the crime was motivated by religious hatred, sources said Monday. Halimi went missing after agreeing to a date with an unknown woman who approached him at his workplace, a telephone store in central Paris. Halimi's mother Ruth told an Israeli newspaper that her son would not have died had he not been Jewish, accusing police of downplaying a possible anti-Semitic motive to avoid alienating France's five-million strong Muslim community. Six people, under investigation for kidnapping and sequestration, could now face aggravated charges of being motivated by religious hatred. A total of 10 people have been placed under investigation — the first step to indictment — over the crime, following a raid on a housing estate south of Paris on Friday. Two more were to be brought before a judge later Tuesday.
Investigators last week traced the crime to a gang on a housing estate in the southern suburbs of Paris, after a young woman who served as a lure in several attempted kidnappings turned herself in and led them to the gang. She has been detained and faces charges of failure to report a crime.
French officials, who still believe the gang's primary aim was extortion, said on Monday that anti-Semitism may also have played a part in the crime, based on statements made by several of the 13 suspects arrested late last week. According to a judicial official, at least one said Halimi had been targeted because "Jews have money and they are a close-knit community," while another said he had been burned on the face with a cigarette because of his religion.
Several French newspapers devoted their front pages on Tuesday to the case, focusing on the distress of the Jewish community. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy was to receive Halimi's brother-in-law as well as a delegation from the French Council of Jewish Institutions (CRIF) on Tuesday afternoon. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin told Jewish leaders on Monday that "all light has to be shed" on the murder.