The Paris prosecutor says two {couples} who allegedly stenciled dozens of blue Stars of David on buildings in Paris and two of its suburbs are linked by a 3rd celebration dwelling overseas
ByThe Related Press
November 7, 2023, 2:44 PM
PARIS — Two {couples} who allegedly stenciled dozens of blue Stars of David on buildings in Paris and two of its suburbs final week are linked by a 3rd celebration dwelling overseas, the Paris prosecutor mentioned Tuesday. The hyperlink was based mostly on a phone dialog by one couple in Russian, an announcement mentioned.
“At this stage, it’s not excluded that the markings of the blue Stars of David within the Paris area had been made on the express demand of an individual dwelling overseas,” prosecutor Laure Beccuau mentioned. An investigating choose was taking on the case, “as a lot to determine the authors as to research the intentions that guided the operation.”
The struggle between Israel and Hamas has led to a minimum of 1,040 identified acts of antisemitism in France, the inside minister mentioned Sunday. However the prosecutor’s workplace investigating the looks of 60 blue stars, much like these on the Israeli flag, has but to conclude whether or not those that put up the stencils had antisemitic intent, Tuesday’s assertion mentioned.
Surveillance video confirmed a person and a girl marking buildings, with a 3rd particular person photographing them, on partitions in Paris and the suburbs of Seine Saint Denis and Hauts de Seine, the assertion mentioned. The couple fled France the next day.
The assertion mentioned that 4 days earlier, a separate couple from Moldova and missing correct papers to stay in France was detained after being seen stenciling a star on a Paris constructing, then held for expulsion from the nation.
“They declared appearing below orders from a 3rd particular person and for remuneration,” the prosecutor’s assertion mentioned, including that an examination of their phone revealed a dialog in Russian confirming the declare. Many Moldovans converse Russian.
“Phone investigation permits us to suppose that the 2 {couples} … had been in relation with the identical third particular person,” or celebration, the assertion mentioned.
It didn’t point out whether or not the nationality of the third celebration was identified.