Yacine Mihoub, the man convicted of murdering 85-year-old Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll in her Paris apartment in 2018, has been sentenced to life in prison by a French court.
The Paris Assize Court handed down a maximum life sentence to Mihoub on Wednesday, with a 22-year security period for the murder of the 85-year-old Holocaust survivor prompted by aggravating circumstances including her membership of the Jewish community and the anti-Semitic nature of the killing.
The sentencing in the case came after nine hours of deliberation, with the court ruling that Mihoub had targetted Ms Knoll due to anti-semitic prejudices and his hatred of her belonging to the Jewish religion, broadcaster BFMTV reports.
Mihoub, who also robbed Ms Knoll, is also believed to have held the belief that, despite her living in a lower-income house area, she had been hiding her wealth.
Alex Carrimbacus, who was tried alongside Mihoub, was not found guilty of participating in the murder of Knoll but was found guilty of stealing from the 85-year-old and was handed a 15-year sentence for his role in the incident.
The murder of Ms Knoll, who was stabbed eleven times before her apartment was set on fire on March 23rd of 2018, sent shockwaves through France when it was learned she had escaped the Vel D’hiv roundup of Jews in 1942, which saw 13,000 people shipped to Auschwitz in occupied Poland.
Several days after the murder, thousands of mourners walked through the streets of Paris, including senior politicians and members of several French religious communities.
The murder of Ms Knoll came just a year after the murder of another Jewish woman named Sarah Halimi, who was killed by a 27-year-old Muslim man named Kobili Traore.
Despite the fact that Traore, an immigrant from Mali, admitted to killing Halimi, he was never put on trial in a French court. A ruling earlier this year in April by France’s Court of Cassation stated that he would not be tried because he could not be held criminally responsible for his actions, as he was supposedly in a state of delirium caused by excessive marijuana use.