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March 5, 2006
France: Muslim Anti-Semite Returns, "Ready To Cooperate"
The leader of the gang which tortured a young Jewish man to death, Youssouf Fofana (pictured ready to board his plane) yesterday left Cote d'Ivoire (the Ivory Coast) states Le Figaro and arrived in France in the afternoon, "ready to cooperate".
On 13 February, Ilan Halimi was found in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois (Essonne), naked, gagged, tied to a tree, with cuts and burns to 80% of his body. Ilan, who had been abducted more than a fortnight before, died of his injuries before he could reach hospital.
Ilan had been caught in a honey-trap by a woman who had visited him at the cellular phone shop where he worked. When he went on a rendezvous to see the woman on 21 January, he was kidnapped. His abductors demanded a ransom from his parents, which they could not afford to pay, and quoted phrases from the Koran. Last Sunday, a massive protest against anti-semitism and racism was organised in Paris.
15 people were arrested, and several were charged with complicity in the kidnapping. But Youssouf Fofana, the leader of the gang, who called himself by the English title "Brain of the Barbarians" had fled to the Ivory Coast, where he spent his first night in the bed of a prostitute, assuming he had escaped retribution.
On Friday, after President Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) signed the extradition release late on Thursday night, Fofana's lawyer Norbert Goutmann declared that he would no longer act as his counsel, saying he would no longer put up with pressure and threats. He said "from all sides, political and religious, people with grievances called me to tell me that they could not comprehend my appointment. I received veiled threats. My shoulders are not large enough to allow me to act, faced with such hostilities."
Another lawyer, Alex Urselet, who formerly defended Guy Georges, the "Beast of Bastilles", a notorious serial killer, spoke of the pressures faced when defending a "monster". He had received threatening letters, phone calls, macabre drawings, and had been spat at while leaving the palace of justice.
Fofana arrived in Paris on Saturday afternoon on board an a French airforce Airbus A310, and in handcuffs he was processed by officers of the BRI (Brigade de Recherche et d'intervention), and then was driven off by police, with motorcycle outriders.
On Thursday, after news that Mamadou Kone, the Cote d'Ivoirian Minister for Justice had approved his extraditon, Fofana had drunk a bottle of aftershave, "probably with the idea of getting himself hospitalised if not to commit suicide", states Le Figaro.
"It was a small bottle of Eau de Cologne. The worst outcome would have been to have freshened his breath", quipped Mamadou Kone.
"His cell-mate had stopped him drinking the whole bottle and the doctor was called immediately. It was nothing serious" explained the prison governor. Fofana had been arrested in Cote d'Ivoire on 22 February.
Late on Thursday, a group of 500 people in New York held a prayer meeting in memory of Ilan Halimi, outside the Jewish Center of Manhattan. The event was attended by France's consul, Francois Delattre. The event was orgenised by the Anti-Defamation League.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at March 5, 2006 8:31 PM
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