In Lyon, a 55-year-old man is standing trial starting Monday before the Rhône Assize Court for the murder of his neighbor, René Hadjadj, 89, who was thrown from the 17th floor of his apartment building in May 2022.
This week opens a case of shocking violence. The defendant is accused of killing an elderly neighbor and friend of Jewish faith by throwing him from the 17th floor of their building in 2022.
The aggravating circumstance of murder committed based on the victim’s religion has been retained by the judiciary, but the accused denies any antisemitic motive. This question will be central to the trial, which runs all week before the Rhône Assize Court.
“The murder itself is acknowledged; it’s the antisemitic character that is being contested,” confirms defense lawyer Me Océane Pilloix. On May 17, 2022, the body of René Hadjadj, 89, was found at the foot of the building where he lived on the 2nd floor. A neighbor, Rachid Kheniche, who lived on the 17th floor, was quickly arrested.
Antisemitic Motive Under Scrutiny
The man, who lived alone after several separations, admitted to throwing his neighbor from his balcony. According to the investigation, he claimed he had first attempted to strangle him during an argument.
The accused, an unemployed former drug user, told investigators that he suffered a paranoid episode that day. “Two psychiatric expert assessments concluded that his discernment was impaired, but not abolished. He remains criminally responsible,” Me Pilloix explains.
Ten days after the murder, the Lyon prosecutor’s office broadened the investigation to determine whether the act was antisemitic, “following elements gathered on social networks,” the prosecution said at the time.
The prosecution believes the religious motive “may have played a role in the act” and that the aggravating circumstance should therefore be examined by the court.
“At Least Troubling Elements”
“There are at least troubling elements, which this man will have to explain, if he can do so,” says Me Alain Jakubowicz, who represents the French League Against Racism and Antisemitism (Licra) and the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (Crif). “The anti-Jewish character is fully established, both materially and morally,” argues Me Franck Serfati, lawyer for two other civil parties, the National Bureau for Vigilance Against Antisemitism (BNVCA) and the Jewish Observatory of France (OJF).
“He knew this neighbor well. He knew he was Jewish, and he attacked him because he was Jewish,” Serfati says, adding that the case bears “many similarities with Sarah Halimi.”
“There is an obvious and troubling overlap with the Halimi case,” notes Jakubowicz, who awaits the arguments to be presented during the hearings. Sarah Halimi, a Jewish woman, was killed in Paris in 2017 by her 27-year-old neighbor, a heavy cannabis user of Muslim faith. Shouting “Allahu Akbar,” he beat her while reciting Quranic verses before throwing her from their apartment balcony.
While acknowledging the antisemitic motive, the courts declared him criminally irresponsible, ruling that drug-induced psychotic episodes had abolished his discernment. He was ordered to be hospitalized with security measures for 20 years. That decision sparked protests and led to a reform of French law on criminal responsibility and narcotics.
