Teen in coma after vigilante attack
Last Friday, a gypsy, Darius, was dragged into a basement in a town north of Paris and almost beaten to death.
The 16-year-old was then dumped in a supermarket trolley beside the highway.
Darius is now in a coma, fighting for his life.
A dozen residents of a housing estate believe the Roma teen had stolen jewellery.
The brutal beating by vigilantes has shocked France, with President Francois Hollande decrying an “unspeakable and unjustifiable” act.
Taken by force
A police officer said a group of assailants took the teen away by force from a squalid Roma camp in Pierrefitte-sur-Seine.
They locked him in a basement and beat him.
“The loot was just a few pieces of jewellery as the perpetrator fled once a young witness saw him. (The witness) gave a description that corresponded with a young man, who was quickly hunted, kidnapped, held, beaten and left to die,” said Ms Sylvie Moisson, a prosecutor in charge of the case.
The attack was founded on rumours, said Ms Moisson, who called it “an act of barbarism”.
It was the boy’s mother who alerted police that her son had been kidnapped.
Anger towards Romas
Mr Michel Fourcade, the mayor of Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, said the boy had been questioned by police several times this month in connection with a string of robberies in the estate.
This had fuelled anger towards the group of Roma, an ethnic minority also known as gypsies, who had set up camp close to the estate.
The Romas left the area following the attack on the teenager.
On Monday, the camp lay abandoned, with rubbish, clothing and mattresses strewn around.
Source: AFP
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