The man who murdered 85-year-old Mireille Knoll in her Paris apartment has been sentenced to life in prison.
Yacine Mihoub was convicted of stabbing Mireille Knoll 11 times and then setting her body on fire during a botched robbery in March 2018. Her killing sparked public outrage over anti-Semitism in France.
Knoll, who had narrowly escaped a round-up of Parisian Jews to Nazi death camps during World War Two, suffered from Parkinson’s disease.
Knoll lived next door to Mihoub’s mother and the court heard that she had acted as a surrogate grandmother to her killer when he was a child.
The court said the attack was fuelled by a “context of anti-Semitism” and “prejudices” about the purported wealth of Jewish people. This led Mihoub to believe Knoll had “hidden treasures” in her home.
An accomplice, Alex Carrimbacus, 25, was jailed for 15 years for robbery, motivated by anti-Semitism. Carrimbacus claimed that he heard Mihoub shouting “Allahu Akbar” meaning “God is greatest”, while stabbing Mireille.
Both Mihoub and Carrimbacus blame each other for the murder.
The trial took place against a backdrop of rising violent acts against French Jews perpetrated by radical Islamists.
Knoll’s death came just a year after Sarah Halimi, a 65-year-old Jewish woman, was thrown to her death from her Paris apartment by a man shouting “Allahu Akbar”.
Her killer, Kobili Traoré, was deemed not criminally responsible in April because his mind was affected by regular consumption of cannabis.
Sources: BBC, France24
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