The Affair of the Gang of Barbarians

The affair of the Gang of Barbarians (French: l'affaire du gang des barbares) was a kidnapping and torture case that gripped and shocked France both because of the fear of resurgence of antisemitism (because the crime was motivated by antisemitism and money) and also because of the vicious nature of the crime committed.

A total of 27 people were accused as implicated in the crime and were tried for kidnapping and murder in 2009. Gang leader Youssouf Fofana (born 1980 in Paris to immigrants from Côte d'Ivoire) was convicted and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 22 years. Others received shorter prison sentences, some suspended, and three were acquitted. While Fofana's life sentence was definite, 14 of the 27 verdicts were appealed by the prosecution. The convictions were upheld on appeal in December 2010.

According to press reports based on information from French criminal investigation authorities, as of February 25, 2006, the crime was believed to have happened as follows:

Halimi was initially buried in the Cimetière parisien de Pantin. At the request of the family, the remains of Ilan Halimi were reburied in Har HaMenuchot cemetery in Israel on Friday, February 9, 2007. It was timed to allow his first Yartzeit, on Tu Bishvat, to pass before the reburial. The date and time (11:30 am) also marked "exactly one year after his burial in France according to the Jewish Calendar."

The crime was committed by a group of persons belonging to a gang calling themselves les barbares (The Barbarians). Many of them have criminal records and have been imprisoned.

During the investigation it appeared that key members of the group were probably implicated in at least 15 other cases of kidnapping or racketeering. Posing as members of the National Front for the Liberation of Corsica or members of the French division of the PFLP, they threatened several high-ranking CEOs including Jérôme Clément, president of the European TV operator Arte, Rony Brauman, former president and co-founder of Médecins Sans Frontières, and the CEO as well as another high-ranking member of a large company selling home appliances. They sent threatening pictures of an unknown man dressed as a middle-eastern Arab in front of a picture of Osama Bin Laden. In another case, the owner of a large grocery store was directed to pay 100,000 euros.

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