Judge rules French woman’s killer not criminally liable as he consumed marijuana

A Muslim man who killed his Jewish neighbour in Paris while shouting about Allah is probably not criminally responsible for his actions because he had smoked marijuana beforehand, a French judge ruled.

The preliminary ruling in the trial of Kobili Traore for the 2017 murder of Sarah Halimi came Friday from a judge of inquiry — a magistrate that in the French justice system is tasked with deciding whether indicted defendants should in fact stand trial.

Francis Khalifat, the president of the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish communities, called the ruling “unsurprising but hardly justifiable.” He said his group and others will appeal in hopes of bringing Traore to trial.

He could be hospitalised for treatment of his psychotic lapses or made to attend a drug rehabilitation program, or he could be released.

Khalifat’s op-ed published Monday on the CRIF website follows a series of protests over perceived delays in Traore’s trial and the efforts, including by judges, that CRIF and others have condemned as attempts to prevent a murder trial.

Sammy Ghozlan, a former police commissioner and founder of France’s Bureau for Vigilance Against Antisemitism, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in May that the handling of the Halimi case has made him “no longer have full confidence that antisemitic hate crimes in France are handled properly.”

Traore pummelled Halimi, a physician and kindergarten teacher, for an hour as police stood outside the woman’s door, according to reports. He shouted about Allah and called her a “demon” before throwing her to her death. Traore had called Halimi’s daughter “dirty Jewess” two years before killing the mother, the daughter has said.