Death of Jeremie Cohen: two young men presented to a judge for "violence"

Europe 1 with AFP 6:59 p.m., April 14, 2022

Two men will be presented to an examining magistrate with a view to their indictment, in particular for "willful violence", after the death of Jeremie Cohen, this young Jewish man fatally hit in February by a tram after being hit, announced Thursday the parquet floor of Bobigny.

The two men, aged 27 and 23, had presented themselves spontaneously to the police on Tuesday and had been taken into custody, added in a press release the prosecution, which requested their placement in pre-trial detention.

"The violence would be linked to the behavior of the victim"

The statements of the two suspects during their police custody, in particular on the "chronology of events", suggest that "the violence would be linked to the behavior of the victim", specified the prosecution, without giving more details.

At this stage of the investigation, "there is still no objective element making it possible to characterize a discriminatory motive, in particular anti-Semitic, at the origin of the violence", specified the prosecutor of Bobigny Eric Mathais.

On Wednesday February 16 around 8 p.m., Jeremie Cohen, 31 years old and with a slight disability, was crossing the railway tracks when he was hit by the tram in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis), just after being hit by several young people. .

In cardiorespiratory arrest and victim of a head trauma, he died in hospital shortly after midnight.

A case taken up by the politicians

A few days before the first round of the presidential election, the affair took on a political dimension when the far-right candidate Eric Zemmour wondered if the young man had "died because a Jew".

Marine Le Pen for her part evoked a "criminal act" which "could be an anti-Semitic murder".

Faced with the avalanche of political reactions, the Bobigny prosecutor spoke last week to indicate that the investigation, opened for "willful violence in meetings", did not "allow at this stage to establish" discriminatory grounds " in the death of the young man.

During a press conference, the young man's family had also called for "remain cautious" in the face of the hypothesis of an anti-Semitic motive.