❓WHAT HAPPENED: A Muslim teenager involved in the gang rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in France had his sentence reduced by the Versailles Court of Appeal.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Two teenage Muslims, one of whom was 13 at the time, were convicted of the crime; a third boy was too young to face prosecution.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The attack occurred in Courbevoie, France, on June 15, 2022, with the original trial held in June 2025.
💬KEY QUOTE: “There is no doubt that [the victim] would not have been assaulted or raped if she had not been Jewish,” the original trial judge conceded.
🎯IMPACT: The decision has sparked outrage among those who believe justice for victims is taking a backseat to the supposed needs of offenders.
A French appeals court has reduced the prison sentence of a Muslim teenager convicted in the 2022 gang rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl from nine years to seven, citing the need to aid his future “reintegration” into society. The defendant was 13 at the time of the attack.
The assault took place on June 15, 2022, in Courbevoie, a suburb northwest of Paris. The victim was ambushed by three boys, dragged to a shed, and forced to perform sexual acts on two of them. She was threatened with death, called a “dirty Jew,” ordered to convert to Islam, and had a lighter held to her face in an attempt to burn her.
In the initial June 2025 trial, the two older defendants received seven and nine years for religiously aggravated gang rape of a minor under 15. The youngest boy, under 12 at the time, could not be criminally prosecuted due to his age and was placed in an educational facility for five years.
The presiding judge at the original trial stated: “There is no doubt that [the victim] would not have been assaulted or raped if she had not been Jewish.” The girl’s lawyers praised her courage, saying: “The main thing is that she has managed to bring the perpetrators of her attack to justice and that two of them are imprisoned.”
Speaking to French media after the verdict, the victim explained why she reported the crime: “It’s important for me to speak out because the very fact I spoke out meant he was quickly arrested and imprisoned. By doing this, I protect myself and I protect others; so they cannot do this to others.”
The reduced sentence has reignited accusations of two-tier justice in Europe, with courts and police often treating offenders from ethnic or religious minorities more leniently than native Europeans. Recent examples include new sentencing guidelines in Britain that attempted to urge judges to consider bail more favorably for ethnic minorities, and a suspended sentence handed to a migrant who sexually assaulted a white teenager.
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