Six remanded in custody over killing of French teenager

Six people have been remanded in custody over the killing of a French teenager whose death at a village dance party sparked political controversy in France, prosecutors said Sunday.

Published: 26 November 2023 12:35 CET

Six remanded in custody over killing of French teenager

Bunches of flowers displayed in front of the reception hall in Crepol, southeastern France, where Thomas passed away. Photo: OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE/AFP.

Last weekend a 16-year-old pupil, identified only as Thomas, was stabbed when a group of outsiders descended on a festive crowd gathered in Crepol, in the southeastern region of Drome, for a dance party in the village hall.

He died on his way to hospital. Eight others were injured, three of them seriously.

On Tuesday, nine suspects were detained in connection with the teenager’s murder. Three are minors, the others are aged between 19 and 22.

Even before the arrests, far-right politicians had been quick to blame the attack on youths from immigrant backgrounds from public housing.

On Wednesday, more than 6,000 people marched in the southeastern town of Romans-sur-Isere, where Thomas’s high school is located, in memory of the pupil.

On Sunday, some 40 ultra-right activists gathered in the centre of the town but were dispersed by police, while around a hundred marched through the town on Saturday evening.

The protesters clashed with police on Saturday, and several people were injured, said a police source. About 20 people were detained.

‘Excesses of violence’

Thierry Devimeux, the prefect of the Drome region, condemned “all excesses of violence” during a briefing on Sunday. He said one activist had been removed from his car by unknown assailants and “beaten up” and his vehicle “burnt”.

After 96 hours in police custody, the suspects in Thomas’s killing were transferred to the Valence courthouse on Saturday.

The public prosecutor’s office had requested the opening of an investigation into charges including attempted murder and “murder in an organised gang.

Nine people have been placed under investigation, prosecutor Laurent de Caigny said in a statement, without providing further details. “Six people, including two minors, were remanded in custody,” he added. “Three people, including one minor, were placed under judicial supervision.”

More than a hundred witnesses have been questioned but the prosecutor said on Saturday that the motive and the details of the crime had not yet been established in full.

According to the preliminary investigation, an altercation that began inside the dance hall, possibly linked to a remark about the hairstyle of one of the suspects, continued outside. More young people arrived in one or two cars.

Nine witnesses reported hearing remarks aimed against “white people”, said the public prosecutor.

However, de Caigny said that the investigation cannot at this stage state with certainty that the victims have been targeted on the basis of their race, ethnicity, or religion.

Most of the suspects admit to having been in Crepol, but deny having stabbed anyone. Around 2,000 people attended the teenager’s funeral in the village of Saint-Donat-sur-l’Herbasse on Friday.

The far-right branded the assault as anti-white racism.

“Now anti-white racism is hitting our countryside,” Marion Marechal, the leading candidate for the far-right Reconquete party of ex-presidential hopeful Eric Zemmour in next year’s European elections, claimed on X, formerly Twitter.

Member comments

Become a Member to leave a comment.

The French Jewish community, the third largest in the world, has for months been on edge in the face of a growing number of attacks and desecrations of memorials.

“National police in Rouen neutralised early this morning an armed individual who clearly wanted to set fire to the city’s synagogue,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Police responded at 6.45 am to reports of “fire near the synagogue”, a police source said.

A source close to the case told AFP the man “was armed with a knife and an iron bar, he approached police, who fired. The individual died”.

“It is not only the Jewish community that is affected. It is the entire city of Rouen that is bruised and in shock,” Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol wrote on X.

He made clear there were no other victims other than the attacker.

Two separate investigations have been opened, one into the fire at the synagogue and another into the circumstances of the death of the individual killed by the police, Rouen prosecutors said.

Such an investigation by France’s police inspectorate general is automatic whenever an individual is killed by the police.

The man threatened a police officer with a knife and the latter used his service weapon, said the Rouen prosecutor.

The dead man was not immediately identified, a police source said.

Asked by AFP, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office said that it is currently assessing whether it will take up the case.

France has the largest Jewish community of any country after Israel and the United States, as well as Europe’s largest Muslim community.

There have been tensions in France in the wake of the October 7th attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel, followed by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Red hand graffiti was painted onto France’s Holocaust Memorial earlier this week, prompted anger including from President Emmanuel Macron who condemned “odious anti-Semitism”.

“Attempting to burn a synagogue is an attempt to intimidate all Jews. Once again, there is an attempt to impose a climate of terror on the Jews of our country. Combating anti-Semitism means defending the Republic,” Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF). wrote on X.

France was hit from 2015 by a spate of Islamist attacks that also hit Jewish targets. There have been isolated attacks in recent months and France’s security alert remains at its highest level.