On Wednesday (November 10), a French court sentenced the killer of a Holocaust survivor named Mireille Knoll to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 22 years.
As per reports, the 85-year-old Knoll was killed on March 23, 2018, at her Paris apartment by an Islamist named Yacine Mihoub. She was stabbed 11 times and her house was set on fire, which partially burnt her body. The incident had sparked outrage among the Jewish community in France. Mihoub, the 32-year-old accused, lived in the same neighbourhood and visited her house for odd jobs. Knoll was a Holocaust survivor, who managed to flee Nazi Germany for Portugal with her mother.
According to her son Daniel, he did not expect Mihoub to kill his mother. He said that Knoll protected Mihoub for years and it came as a surprise when he turned out to be the executioner. At the time of Knoll’s murder, she was suffering from Parkinson’s disease and could not move an inch without help. Despite this, she was brutally murdered by Mihoub. The Islamist was aided in his crime by a man named Alex Carrimbacus.
The co-accused had informed the court that Mihoub yelled ‘Allah hu Akbar’ while stabbing the Jewish woman. Carrimbacus told the Court that the Islamist was arguing with the victim about Jews having money and wealth, on the day of her death. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of robbery. In his statement in court, Carrimbacus regretted not preventing the ‘savage’ attack on the Holocaust survivor. The prosecutors pointed out the jihadist messages in the prison cell of Mihoub as proof of his anti-Semitic behaviour.
In 2018, a group of 30000 Jews took out a silent march in support of Knoll. It was attended by the heads of political parties and government Ministers. The Holocaust survivor’s funeral was attended by French President Emmanuel Macron himself. France is home to an estimated 5 lakh Jews, making them the largest community as compared to other European countries.
