- Title: FRANCE/IVORY COAST: Paris murder suspect extradited to France from Ivory Coast
- Date: 5th March 2006
- Summary: FRENCH OFFICIALS WALKING WITH FILE
- Embargoed: 20th March 2006 12:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVADEDT9BBEHUB0VIUN8ARZDM4A6
- Story Text: Ivory Coast on Saturday (March 4) sent back to France the suspected leader of a gang that tortured and killed a Jewish man near Paris last month.
Police arrested Youssef Fofana, a French citizen, in Abidjan last week in connection with the murder of 23 year-old Ilan Halimi who was found naked, tortured and burned south of Paris on February 13. On Saturday (March 4) Fofana was brought to the airport in Abidjan to be handed over to French officials before deportation.
Ivorian Justice Minister Mamadou Kone handed over a blue folder with Fofana's name on the front to French officials as they stood outside close to the plane, Reuters witnesses said.
Ivorian security forces wearing balaclavas put suspected gang leader, Youssef Fofana, onto a French military plane in Ivory Coast's economic capital Abidjan.
Kone told reporters at the airport that Fofana's extradition had concluded satisfactorily and he said he was pleased with the French cooperation.
Fofana said in a television interview broadcast in France on Monday (February 27) that Halimi was kidnapped for "financial reasons", but he denied having killed him or having acted through anti-Semitism.
French police accuse Fofana's gang of trying to kidnap six other people, four of them Jewish.
Fofana, who spent three years in prison for violent robbery, faces 22 years in prison if convicted of criminal association, kidnapping and murder.
Seventeen people have been indicted in France in the case and one suspect arrested in neighbouring Belgium. Members of the gang have implicated Fofana as its leader, and said he dubbed himself "the brain of the barbarians".
France's president Jacques Chirac and prime minister Dominique de Villepin joined Paris' Jewish community in a mourning prayer on February 23, to commemorate its young member Ilan Halimi, who was kidnapped and killed by a suburban gang in an allegedly racially motivated spread of violence.
The religious ceremony took place only hours after the announcement of the arrest of Halimi's alleged murderer in Ivory Coast, where he had fled.
Halimi, a 23-year old salesman in a mobile phone shop in Paris, disappeared on January 21, reportedly after he had made a date with a woman.
His family said that they had received a number of ransom demands for 450,000 euros (540,000 US Dollars), which they weren't able to pay, before the man was found naked, gagged and in agonizing pain in a Paris' suburb three weeks afterwards.
He died while being transported to the hospital for injuries and burns.
The crime was perceived by the French Jewish community as motivated by an anti-semitic sentiment, while one of the suspects who were questioned said that Halimi was kidnapped by the gang, calling itself "the Barbarians", because he was Jewish, and therefore rich.
Fifteen people have been arrested in France in connection with Halimi's assassination. Amongst them, a young woman who is accused of leading Halimi into the trap.
Halimi's murder was followed by a number of marches and some violent attacks against Muslims and black people.
In Bagneux, on the outskirts of Paris, hundreds of people held a silent, peaceful march on Thursday (March 2) to protest Halimi's killing.
Some of the demonstrators were carrying banners reading "Against antisemitism and racism".
The French military plane carrying Fofana landed at Charles de Gaulle international airport around 5.30 p.m. (1630 GMT) on Saturday, an airport spokesman said. He was taken from the airport in a large security convoy.
Fofana was to be taken before two examining magistrates in Paris to face charges over the murder of Halimi. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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