Jewish woman accuses police of anti-Semitic violence

After an arrest during a road check in June 2023, a 67-year-old woman claims that police officers tore off her wig while she was handcuffed to a bench, according to her testimony revealed by Mediapart.

She says she lived “a humiliation”. An Orthodox Jewish woman filed a complaint on Thursday, February 1, against police officers. She accuses them of having ripped off her wig at the Créteil police station (Val-de-Marne), during an arrest on June 8, 2023, AFP learned from her lawyer, confirming information from Mediapart.

Sarah (first name has been changed), 67, told the news site that she was taken to the police station following a traffic stop during which the police accused her of refusing to comply. Handcuffed to a bench, she explains that she lost consciousness. When she regained consciousness, she heard a police officer say to one of her colleagues “look, she has a wig on her head, take it off”which he did, according to the first complaint that she filed on June 13 with the IGPN, the “police of police”, and which AFP consulted on Monday.

This was closed without further action for “absence of serious offence” at the end of September, said the Créteil public prosecutor’s office. “No administrative follow-up was given to this file by the IGPN”for its part reacted the Paris police headquarters.

A complaint with the constitution of a civil party

Sarah filed a new complaint last Thursday for “violence of a sexist and anti-Semitic nature by persons holding public authority”. This complaint is with the constitution of a civil party, which should lead to the appointment of an investigating judge.

According to her lawyer, Arié Alimi, the traffic stop occurred while the woman was returning “Shabbat shopping”, the day of rest in the Jewish religion, and that it rolled “Normally”. “There, motorized police officers rush out of a gas station”, he assured. Sarah, not identifying them as police at first, honks her horn.

“Starts a somewhat humiliating check”continues her lawyer: panicked, “she releases the brake” and his car reverses, knocking down a police motorcycle on which “there is nobody”. After a heated discussion with the police, she was taken to the Créteil police station.

In images revealed by Mediapart and filmed by the pedestrian camera of a police officer at the police station, Sarah, lying on the ground, her stomach exposed, is held by two male police officers and screams. “I’m Jewish, I want my wig back”she said several times.

She is due to be tried on March 4

In her complaint, she states that she felt unwell, which the police do not believe: we hear in the video a police officer ordering her to“stop the comedy”. We also hear the police making fun of her several times, then forcing her to sit down to give her back her wig, which a police officer ends up slipping under her arm.“They make fun of her because she is Jewish, even though she is in an extremely fragile state,” believes Me Alimi.

Sarah must be judged on March 4 after refusing an appearance with prior admission of guilt, added the Créteil prosecutor’s office. Arié Alimi declared that she would appear for “endangering the lives of others with immediate risk of death” and “degradation of public property”.