Mireille Knoll was "massacred" at the age of 85 because she was Jewish, estimated Alain Knoll, her son, on Tuesday, on the fifth day of the trial for the murder of the sick old lady, stabbed eleven times.

This March 23, 2018, Alain Knoll comes to see his mother and cooks lunch for her.

On his arrival in the hall, he falls to his "surprise" on Yacine Mihoub who "awaits him".

"I was not up to the task"

The man, whose mother lives in the same modest building in eastern Paris as Mireille, explains to her that he "has just been released from prison". He was in fact released in November 2017 after a conviction for sexual assault on a minor, facts which took place in Mireille Knoll's apartment. As such, he is prohibited from frequenting this building in the 11th arrondissement, an element that Alain Knoll ignores. Alain Knoll opens the door for him, notes that his mother seems "happy" to see Yacine Mihoub, the neighbor's son, who has been helping him since he was a kid.

But quickly Alain Knoll, as he tells it at the helm, feels "uneasy" to see this man "not aggressive" but "without embarrassment" who takes a drink and uses Port.

The son has to leave for a date, leaving Yacine Mihoub with his mother who "saw nowhere the harm".

"She didn't expect the one she had been protecting for years to become her tormentor," he said, straight to the helm despite the emotion.

His words are hesitant, his silences heavy in the small meeting room in Paris.

Then he finally let go: "If I had known what would happen, I would have made her leave… This feeling of… I was not up to the task, I could not protect her".

Unbearable photos

He brought a charcoal portrait of his mother to show "the beauty of her face." Far from the unbearable photos broadcast at the trial, which showed her body found by the firefighters "half charred", while "she no longer had a face, no more nose, no more cheeks". The two accused had not then taken a look at the pictures, despite the invectives of the Knoll family. Yacine Mihoub, 32, and Alex Carrimbacus, 25, two young people with dented childhood and accustomed to lies, met in detention.

They are accused of the murder of Mireille Knoll, with the aggravating circumstances due to the vulnerability of the victim, suffering from Parkinson's disease and unable to move around alone, and his membership of the Jewish community.

This drama, which took place a year after the murder of Sarah Halimi, a Jewish sexuagenarian thrown from her balcony, had provoked strong emotion and revived the debate on a "new anti-Semitism".

“Why qualify this crime as anti-Semitic?

“Asks Charles Consigny on Tuesday, one of Yacine Mihoub's lawyers, if not that the prosecution has retained this qualification?

"Anti-Semitic rumination"

At the beginning "we did not see the anti-Semitic aspect with my brother", explains Alain Knoll, "we thought of a heinous crime". But in view of "the violence of the stab wounds", an obvious translation of a "pure hatred", "I conclude that they paid themselves a" yoke "and that they massacred it", he, controlling his anger.

He also quotes, for the first time, snippets of conversation he says he heard on March 23 between his mother and Yacine Mihoub.

They concern the extreme right and “Jews who are privileged”, he assures us.

But Yacine Mihoub's lawyer reminds him that he was heard on the day of the events and the next day by the investigators and did not mention them: "at no time do you indicate this discussion", firmly launches Fabrice de Korodi to him. Katona, who denounces an “anti-Semitic rumination” attributed to his client.

The trial is scheduled to last until November 10.

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