"A preliminary examination of the elements of the crime does not reveal an anti-Semitic characteristic, but this possibility has not been discounted as police investigate further," a spokesperson for the Jewish Community Protection Service (SPCJ), an organization that has close ties to the French police, said.The Paris Prosecutors Office opened a formal investigation on Monday, with police sources telling France Info radio that a judicial investigation into the murder had been opened, "on the grounds, whether true or supposed, that the victim belonged to a religion. A “Mysterious fire.” That is the term used by the French newspaper Le Parisien, which was the first to tell about the story, to describe the murder of an 85 year-old Holocaust survivor, found dead on Friday night in her apartment in Paris. According to the judicial source, the arrested men were notified by a judge that they are suspected of murder motivated by the victim's "real or supposed adherence to a religion," as well as aggravated theft and damage to property. Although no evidence yet exists to suggest that the woman’s religion motivated the murderer, the attack comes a year after the murder of another older Jewish woman, Sarah Halimi, a 65 year-old retiree who was stabbed to death a few blocks away from Friday’s victim.
French police detain two men in connection with the murder of an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor who was found in the burned remains of her apartment. The prosecutor's office is investigating if the killing was "motivated by the real or supposed adherence to a religion".