President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister François Bayrou on Friday condemned antisemitic hatred after a tree planted in tribute to Ilan Halimi, a 23-year-old Jewish man, was cut down. Halimi was kidnapped and tortured in January 2006.
On 20 January that year, Halimi was forced into a car in Sceaux on the southern outskirts of Paris. He was held first in a flat in nearby Bagneux, then in a cellar in the town, by a group of about 20 people calling themselves the "Barbarian Gang".
The gang demanded up to 450,000 euros from Halimi’s parents for his release.
He was freed on 13 February 2006 about 20km from Bagneux, near Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois railway station. He died on the way to hospital.
"Cutting down the tree honouring Ilan Halimi is tantamount to trying to kill him a second time," Macron wrote on social media.
"That will not happen: the nation will not forget this child of France who died because he was Jewish. All means are being deployed to punish this act of hatred. In the face of antisemitism: the republic, always uncompromising."
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Bayrou said: "No crime can uproot memory. The never-ending fight against the deadly poison of hatred is our primary duty."
Hervé Chevreau, the mayor of Epinay-sur-Seine where the tree was planted in March 2011, reported the attack to police.
"It's an odious act, we can only be outraged," Chevreau told reporters. "We're talking about a park where there are lots of plants and other olive trees. And the one that was cut down was in memory of Ilan Halimi. This is definitely an antisemitic act."
Police have requested CCTV footage from the park. "I hope that the investigation will be successful and that this individual will be firmly punished for this unspeakable act," Chevreau said.
Paris police chief Laurent Nunez wrote on social media: "Everything will be done to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
