Overview

• Prosecutors in Bobigny announced the arrest of two suspects described as twin brothers in the mid-August destruction of the Ilan Halimi memorial tree.
• The pair are set for comparution immédiate on counts of aggravated destruction of property and violation of a monument dedicated to the memory of the dead committed for racist or religious motives.
• The olive tree, located in the Jardin d’Alcobendas in Épinay-sur-Seine, was planted in 2011 to honor Halimi, who was kidnapped and tortured in 2006.
• Local officials reported surveillance images of an intruder entering the closed park at 1:50 a.m., and the trunk appeared to have been cut with a chainsaw.
• President Emmanuel Macron condemned the felling as an act of hatred, and prior vandalism of Halimi memorial trees was recorded in 2019 in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois.