An appeals court in France has ruled that an Algerian nanny who tried to poison the Jewish children in her care was not motivated by antisemitism.
The woman, named only as Leila Y, was convicted in December last year after a court found that she had poured toilet cleaner into the children’s fruit juice, as well as bottles of wine drunk by their parents.
The parents had filed a criminal complaint against her in 2024 after discovering that one of the children’s juice bottles smelled strongly of bleach.
During the trial, the court heard that Leila Y had admitted to the actions during police interviews and had said that “because they have money and power, I should never have worked for a Jewish woman, she only brought me problems”.
She later recanted this statement, with her defence team arguing that the confession had been “made up” under duress.
Ultimately, she was convicted of the attempted poisoning and sentenced to two and a half years behind bars, but the Nanterre criminal court dismissed antisemitism as an aggravating factor in the crime.
While it acknowledged that the nanny’s comment was antisemitic in nature, the court ruled that, as it was made without a lawyer present, it could not be admitted as evidence.
Now, though, the Versailles Court of Appeal has upheld the initial judgment but again ruled out antisemitic aggravation following an appeal from the family.
And it went further than the lower court, ruling that the nanny’s remark did not constitute antisemitic speech.
This decision makes the judicial repression of antisemitism impossible and turns the text of laws, which are supposed to be protective, into mere meaningless scraps of paper,” said the family’s lawyers, Patrick Klugman and Sacha Ghozlan.
"Faced with such a decision, litigants risk losing all forms of trust and protection from the judicial system.”
They also announced that the family intends to appeal the ruling to the Court of Cassation, the criminal court in France.
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