Man sentenced to life imprisonment in France for murdering a Jew

Bess writes: A man has been sentenced to life imprisonment in France charged with the murder and torture of a 23-year-old Jew.  Youssouf Fofana, 28, the son of nominally Muslim migrants from the Ivory Coast, and the leader of a gang called "The Barbarians"  was on Friday found guilty of the murder in 2006 of Ilan Halimi. Halimi was found dead near a train station, naked, bleeding from at least four stab wounds to his throat, his hands bound, and tape covering his mouth and eyes. Burns from acid, splashed over him to disguise the DNA of his torturers, covered 60 per cent of his body, according to the autopsy reports, according to The New York Times. This murder has naturally horrified France, home to Europe’s largest populations of both Muslims and Jews. Thousands, including President Sarkozy, took place in anti-racism and anti-semitism marches last weekend.This second, in-depth report from The New York Times explains that a minimum of 20 people were involved in the kidnapping, and subsequent attempts to secure ransom, which included a call to a rabbi, to whom the captors said: “We have a Jew”. Fofana, who yelled "Allah will prevail" as the trial began, claimed money, not anti-Semitism as his motive. Perhaps the most horrifying aspect of the story is that the neighbours knew.
One quoted in this report, who naturally did not wish to be named, said awkwardly: “I knew they had someone down there. I didn't know they were torturing him," he said. "Otherwise, I would have called the police."

What price conscience?