FILE - In this July 13 2009 file photo, memonstrators hold photographs of Ilan Halimi at the end of the two-month trial of a Paris gang who kidnapped, tortured and killed Halimi, a young French Jew in 2006. France's interior minister Gerard Collomb has condemned Thursday Nov. 2 2017 the desecration of a prominent Jewish grave plaque near Paris by unknown vandals as "cowardly and odious." The plaque in homage to Halimi, was pulled off, thrown on the ground and covered with anti-Semitic writing. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon, File)
Republished November 02, 2017 - 7:03 AM
Original Publication Date November 02, 2017 - 4:16 AM
PARIS - France's interior minister has condemned the desecration of a prominent Jewish memorial plaque near Paris by unknown vandals as "cowardly and odious."
Gerard Collomb said the plaque in homage to Ilan Halimi, a French Jew murdered in 2006, was pulled off, thrown on the ground and covered with anti-Semitic writing.
Collomb noted that the plaque had previously been vandalized in 2015.
France's leading Jewish group, CRIF, said that this latest event highlights the country's persistent anti-Semitism.
Halimi was held and tortured for three weeks before being murdered in a suburb of Paris by a French criminal gang.
News from © The Associated Press, 2017