Tribute to Mireille Knoll during an organized march in Paris, March 28, 2018. – Erez Lichtfeld / SIPA
The two men accused of the murder of Mireille Knoll, a Jewish octogenarian stabbed in Paris in 2018, will be tried from October 25 to November 19, AFP learned on Wednesday from sources familiar with the matter.
Yacine M., 31, and Alex C., 24, must appear before the Assize Court of Paris for “murder on a vulnerable person and committed because of the religion of the victim”. On March 23, 2018, the body of this 85-year-old woman with Parkinson’s disease was found stabbed 11 times and partially charred in her apartment in eastern Paris.
The two defendants deny stabbing the octogenarian
His death had aroused great indignation, including that of the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron, a year after the murder in Paris of Sarah Halimi, a Jewish sexagenarian thrown from her balcony.
Yacine M., the son of a neighbor who had known the octogenarian since childhood, and Alex C., an outcast with a psychiatric history he had met in prison, were quickly suspected. The two men deny having stabbed the octogenarian and blame themselves for the murder. Their precise role could not be determined during the investigation.
The anti-Semitic nature of the chosen murder
In their order of indictment, in July 2020, the two investigating judges retained the anti-Semitic nature of the murder based on the statements of Alex C. He had affirmed that, during a discussion with Mireille Knoll, Yacine M. had reproached the Jews for “having financial means and a good situation”. His statements then varied over the course of the investigation, but the investigating judges considered the discussion “plausible”. “The investigations made it possible to reveal the ambivalence of Yacine M. vis-à-vis Islamist terrorism which notably advocates anti-Semitism”, they wrote.
The defendants categorically dispute the anti-Semitic nature of the crime, but the investigating chamber confirmed in November that they should also be tried for this circumstance. They are also being prosecuted for “aggravated theft” and “damage by means dangerous to people”.
Yacine M.’s mother should be tried alongside them for “destruction of a document or object relating to a crime to prevent the manifestation of the truth”. She is particularly suspected of having cleaned the knife potentially used for the crime.