2023-08-24 18:56:40
The affair had aroused great emotion in Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine), where a large Jewish community is located. The facade of a kosher restaurant, opened five months earlier, had been sprayed on the night of August 18 to 19 with anti-Semitic tags. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said he was “deeply shocked”. The following afternoon, a 71-year-old suspect, suspected of having vandalized this business on rue Jules-Guesde, was arrested near the scene and placed in police custody. But the measure was finally lifted without prosecution, for lack of material evidence.
According to our information, another suspect, aged 74, was arrested on Thursday morning. While in police custody, this Jewish man, who would suffer from serious health problems, admitted the facts. This son of survivors of the Holocaust disputed any anti-Semitic motive, and mentioned a commercial dispute opposing him to the manager of the restaurant he degraded. At the end of his police custody, the septuagenarian was brought before the correctional court of Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine), with a view to being tried there, this Thursday afternoon, in immediate appearance.
Unpaid rent source of conflict
Jean-Claude (his first name has been changed), resident of the 20th arrondissement of Paris, appeared very diminished, this Thursday at the end of the afternoon, before the magistrates of the 16th correctional chamber. Equipped with an oxygen tank, this father of three grown children, as a couple, asked for a dismissal of the case in order to prepare his defense.
This dental technician “since [ses] 18 years old” briefly returned to the source of the dispute which would oppose him to the manager of the restaurant he targeted. Jean-Claude is the owner of the business of the other restaurant managed by the victim, avenue Simon-Bolivar in Paris (XIX). But his tenant would not honor his deadlines. “There is a lot of work in the building, and I pay a maximum of charges. I need money to survive, ”launched the septuagenarian, at the helm, in light jeans and a white checkered shirt, hunched over in his chair.
“I am amazed by the speed of the procedure. These are the ravages of media pressure, ”denounced Jean-Claude’s lawyer, Me Ian Knafou. “My client is not the anti-Semite that Gérald Darmanin was looking for, but a man faced with a commercial dispute who has gone crazy,” added the Parisian criminal. The court postponed the examination of the file to December 14, and ordered a psychiatric expertise. Pending the hearing, Jean-Claude was placed under judicial supervision, with a ban on contact with the victim. He is also refused to go near the restaurant’s two businesses, and his home, in Saint-Maurice (Val-de-Marne).
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