The French parliamentary inquiry into the murder of Sarah Halimi has been told that police could have stopped the killing of the Orthodox Jewish pensioner but did not act in time.
The 65-year-old kindergarten director died when she was thrown off her balcony having been savagely assaulted by Kobili Traore, a fellow resident in their block of flats in Paris, in 2017.
There was outrage in France and across the world’s Jewish community when Traore was spared a trial and instead placed in a mental hospital because he was said to have suffered cannabis-induced psychosis on the night of the murder.
Now the inquiry has heard that he could have been stopped by police. On the night of murder he had earlier been in the apartment of his relatives the Diarras. His agitated state caused the family to lock themselves in a room and call the police.
It was from there that Traore broke into Halimi’s home by crossing over via her balcony and killed her, before returning to the Diarras’ flat at 4.45am.
Police took more than an hour after turning up to arrest Traore, reportedly breaking into the Diarras’ home at 5.35am. The official report said they had no other way to get in.
However, Thieman Diarra, the family’s father, told the inquiry that he had thrown a set of keys for his apartment to police. It was said this would have allowed officers to apprehend Traore before the murder, either in the Diarras’ home or Mrs Halimi’s flat, to which they could easily have crossed over.
Member of parliament and the head of the investigation committee Meyer Habib wrote: “Thieman Diarra confirmed that he threw to police his own set of keys and a building entrance pass. When police entered the Diarra home they didn’t break open the door but used the key!!!”
Lawyer Muriel Ouaknine-Melki, representing Halimi’s brother, who was also interviewed by the committee, said that police officers at the scene were waiting for an order to intervene. She said that after examining thousands of pages related to the case her office found no evidence such an order had been given.
The committee is examining whether the case was mishandled by both the police and the judiciary, and considering measures to prevent future similar failures.
Police, psychiatrists and legal professionals are due to give evidence before the inquiry submits its final report in January.
A lawyer representing Mrs Halimi’s sister said the case had exposed the pitfalls of court-appointed experts. Psychiatrists disagreed on whether the killer was legally responsible before the case was dismissed.
“Psychiatrists should not be the ones to decide whether a trial should be held or not,” said Francis Szpiner. “There should be an overhaul of the way these experts are selected.”
