Stars of David tagged: Judge to investigate possible foreign sponsor

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credits: J-F ROLLINGER / ONLY FRANCE / Only France via AFP 18:49 pm, 07 November 2023

An investigating judge was appointed on Tuesday to investigate the tagging of blue Stars of David in the Paris region, the Paris prosecutor announced, not ruling out that this marking "was carried out at the express request of a person living abroad". "The investigation will now continue as part of a judicial investigation, both to identify the perpetrators and to analyse the intention that guided this operation," Beccuau said in a press release.

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Investigation of the offence of aggravated damage

On the morning of October 31, about sixty blue Stars of David, stenciled, were discovered on the walls of buildings in Paris. On the same night, identical stars were marked on walls in the departments of Seine-Saint-Denis and Hauts-de-Seine. The Paris Public Prosecutor's Office has entrusted the Paris Territorial Security with an investigation into the offence of degradation, aggravated by the fact that it was committed because of origin or religion.

"The motif is the blue Star of David, similar to the one on the flag of Israel, and these stencils were marked on facades, in a way that was obviously indifferent to what the buildings were sheltering," the Paris prosecutor said. "It is necessary to continue investigations into the anti-Semitic nature of the intention of the perpetrators of these damages, particularly in view of the geopolitical context and its repercussions in France," she continued.

The legal proceedings were dismissed

According to the statement, investigations have established that "these inscriptions were made by a man and a woman, during a single journey, in the presence of a third person who photographed these damages". On 6 November, the investigations of the public prosecutor's offices in Bobigny and Nanterre were joined to those in Paris. "These two people left France the next afternoon," the statement said.

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A comparison was made with an investigation into other acts committed four days earlier, which led to the arrest in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, on 27 October, of a man and a woman, born in June 1990 and December 1994 in Moldova. "A local resident had seen them snil a blue star, which was erased the same day. They had declared that they had acted on the orders of a third party and in return for payment, which was evidenced by a conversation in Russian on their phone," Beccuau said.

The judicial proceedings were closed because they were placed in an administrative detention centre with a view to their deportation. According to the prosecutor's office, "telephone searches suggest that the two couples of perpetrators were in contact with the same third person." In this case, according to a source close to the case, investigators quickly hypothesized "possible ramifications abroad", with strong questioning about "the role of a foreign hand behind this action".