French Muslim teens sentenced to 7, 9 years in prison for gang raping Jewish girl

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Two French Muslim teenagers who raped a 12-year-old Jewish girl in 2024 have been sentenced to seven years and nine years in prison, respectively.

The sentence was handed down on Friday in Nanterre juvenile court, following a three-day trial. These two appeared on charges of gang rape of a minor under the age of 15 on the basis of religion. The length of the sentences received were near the upper end of the maximum possible jail time of 10 years.

The two were 13 years old at the time of the incident; a third boy involved in the incident was below the age of criminal responsibility (12 at the time) and therefore cannot receive a prison sentence. The third boy was sentenced to five years in an educational facility.

The presiding judge explained that the severity of the sentence came “in view of their concerning personality traits and the immense social disturbance to society and [to the victim] and because of what she was: a young girl of the Jewish faith.”

The third boy – who was the victim’s ex-partner – was tried for complicity in this crime. During their relationship, the girl pretended she was Muslim due to fears for her safety. On discovering she was Jewish, the boy ended the relationship, dropped out of school, and converted to Islam.

“His instructions and his mere presence helped in the carrying out of these rapes,” said the court, which then spoke of the boy’s “revenge plan” on discovering his girlfriend had lied to him about her religion. “He harbored a deep hatred for the Jewish faith, particularly through the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” the presiding judge said.

According to Le Monde, the girl – who chose to be present throughout the trial – burst into tears during the deliberation.

Muriel Ouaknine-Melki, one of the girl’s two lawyers, told Le Monde that “there was a real consideration by the court of the exponential rise of antisemitism.”

'Moments replay'

“It’s important for me to speak out because the very fact I spoke out meant he was quickly arrested and imprisoned,” she said. “By doing this, I protect myself and I protect others so they cannot do this to others.”

She told CNews that the aftermath has been complicated: “I still have after-effects; sometimes I struggle to fall asleep, I have flashbacks, moments replay.”

She added that she has had to change her daily habits, and that there are things she no longer does that she did before the attack, such as going out on her own. She also noted that she has become less sociable.

Speaking on her ex-boyfriend, the instigator of the rapes, she told CNews, “This is someone who I loved a lot, who I had confidence in, but who completely betrayed me.”

CNews asked her why she had pretended not to be Jewish: “I just did that in order to protect myself because I had already been subjected to harassment in the past and I knew that it was not necessarily a good idea to openly admit that I was Jewish given what I’d experienced before.”

The incident in question took place in Courbevoie on June 15, 2024.

On the day of the attack, the girl was on her way home when she was ambushed. She was forced to perform penetrative and oral sex on two of the boys under threat of death. Her ex-boyfriend also threatened to burn her cheek while holding a lighter near her face and tried to make her sit on her handbag, which he had set on fire.

The victim’s mother told Le Parisien at the time that one of her daughter’s attackers told her, “I know you’re not Muslim… So, what religion are you?”

They then called the girl a “dirty Jew,” she told authorities at the time.

Following the gang rape, which was filmed, the three asked the girl to convert to Islam, her parents told the French paper. “Before letting her leave, they made her swear on Allah not to say anything and that she should not tell anyone, neither her parents nor the police,” her mother added.