“The same team” is suspected of having carried out different markings of Stars of David last week in Paris and its suburbs “in a single trip”, the capital’s prosecutor’s office said on Monday, requested by AFP, concerning these tags whose anti-Semitic nature has not been established at this stage.
Several dozen Stars of David were discovered Tuesday morning, October 31, tagged on the facades of buildings in the 14th arrondissement of Paris but also in other places in Paris and the suburbs. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne denounced “despicable actions”, seeing, like many political figures, anti-Semitic acts. A 33-year-old man and a 29-year-old woman, born in Moldova, were arrested last Friday, after declaring “having committed this offense on the orders of a third party”.
“It has not been established that this star has an anti-Semitic connotation”
Initially, three investigations were opened in Bobigny, Nanterre and Paris, for damage to the property of others aggravated by the circumstance that it was committed due to origin, race, ethnicity or religion. . The three were finally grouped together in Paris, the capital’s prosecutor’s office said Monday morning. “It appears in fact that the same team was able to carry out the different markings during a single journey. Investigations are continuing,” adds the public prosecutor.
On Friday, this same source clarified that it “has not been established that this star has an anti-Semitic connotation, but this cannot be ruled out straight away.” The public prosecutor said it was investigating “the intention underlying these tags, particularly with regard to the geopolitical context and its impact among the population in France. »
257 anti-Semitic acts in the Paris metropolitan area
Sunday, on BFMTV, the prefect of police Laurent Nuñez spoke of an “atypical affair compared to other anti-Semitic acts” and put the number of placements of this star at 250. He confirmed that a “team of authors who seem to coordinate rather well » was in the viewfinder of the investigators, and had “the desire that these stars be seen”. The team reportedly targeted “certain buildings where no members of the Jewish community lived.”
According to him, 257 anti-Semitic acts have been recorded in the Paris metropolitan area and 90 people arrested since October 7, the start of the conflict between Hamas and Israel.