The aggressor was at the wheel of a van, honking his horn and flashing his lights at a young Jew wearing a kippa who was crossing the road at a pedestrian crossing to go to the nearby synagogue, accompanied by his brother-in-law and a three-year-old nephew.
The driver got out of the vehicle, insulted the young man, hit him several times with a metal object that broke his arm, then made off.
The defendant denied the anti-Semitic aspect of the aggression, saying it was a mere case of road rage and claiming that he had not seen the victim’s kippa, nor that of the child or the characteristic caftan of the man accompanying them.
Speaking for the claimants, the LICRA lawyer showed that, on the contrary, it had been a typical anti-Semitic act, which as such should not be minimised. He also insisted on the fact that the presence of CRIF at the hearing was a testimony to the dismay this case had caused in the Jewish community.
The lawyers for the claimants and the associated parties said they were satisfied with the sentencing of the individual to a firm prison sentence and by the Court’s recognition of the anti-Semitic character of the aggression.
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