A 45-year-old French man has been sentenced to two years in prison—one of them suspended—after violently assaulting a Jewish man in his 70s in Anduze, in the Gard department in southern France, while shouting antisemitic slurs.
The attack took place on April 30, when the victim, who was wearing a kippah and tzitzit, was feeding stray cats.
The assailant, who was reportedly intoxicated, approached him aggressively and demanded money. When the man refused, the attacker began cursing him, calling him a “dirty Jew,” punching him hard in the face, and repeatedly kicking him while he lay on the ground.
The trial took place in the criminal court of Alès, where the attacker, identified as Alessandro C., was convicted of aggravated assault with a racist motive. The charge falls under a French law that defines such acts as “violence and insults based on belonging or not belonging to an ethnic group, nation, race or religion.”
Prosecutor Abdelkrim Grini had sought a three-year jail sentence, with two years suspended. Presiding judge Cécile Besse cited aggravating circumstances—including the antisemitic motive and the attacker’s intoxication—before handing down a two-year sentence, with one year suspended. The court also ordered his immediate detention, psychiatric treatment and enrollment in an addiction rehabilitation program.
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During the hearing, the defendant denied any antisemitic intent, saying he had nothing against Jews or any other group. He claimed to have suffered from a bipolar disorder for over 15 years and insisted, “I could have done the same thing to a Muslim woman or a Hindu.” He offered an apology during the proceedings.
The assault occurred against a backdrop of local tensions in Gard, shortly after the murder of a Muslim worshiper at a nearby mosque, which shocked the community. According to French media, the alleged killer is a 21-year-old French citizen of Bosnian-Serbian descent named Olivier, who is not Muslim and had no prior criminal record.