The family of murdered French Jewish woman Sarah Halimi will file an official complaint against the police for failing to enter the building and prevent her death, i24NEWS reported Tuesday.
Halimi—a 66 year-old former kindergarten teacher and widow—was murdered in the early hours of April 4. The suspect, Kada Traore, a 27-year-old immigrant from Mali, broke into her apartment and viciously beat her. Traore could be heard yelling “Allahu Akhbar,” which prompted neighbors to call the police.
French police arrived on the scene minutes later but reportedly refused to enter the building before anti-terror units had been deployed, more than two hours after Halimi’s ordeal began. During this time, Halimi was assaulted and eventually thrown out of the window by her neighbor.
“I can confirm that I have filed a complaint with the Paris public prosecutor against the police,” said the family’s lawyer, Gilles William Goldnadel, adding that authorities must investigate which branch of the forces bears responsibility for the failure to prevent Halimi’s death.
“It is totally incomprehensible, in the literal sense of the word, to explain why the police did not intervene for an hour when for at least thirty minutes of that a woman was tortured by her assassin,” Goldnadel added.
The umbrella organization of French Jewish communities last week accused the government of “covering up” the anti-Semitic motive behind her murder.
“The murder of Sarah Halimi was 85 days ago already and the investigation is not advancing. Why this silence? Why this omerta?” the group said in a statement. “What is being hidden? Why this denial of anti-Semitism?”
This is not the first time such accusations have been made. Last month, a member of the European Parliament and 17 prominent French intellectuals also accused French authorities of covering up the anti-Semitic motive behind the attack. They noted that neighbors testified that Traore had called Halimi a “dirty Jew” to her face.
In an analysis for Commentary, Benjamin Weinthal and Ben Cohen concluded, “That disdainful attitude—that refusal to recognize and name the violent anti-Semitism that is being actively cultivated in French Muslim communities—isn’t just confined to politics and media. It’s impacting law enforcement as well.”
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