FRENCH JEW KIDNAPPED, ABUSED IN POSSIBLE HATE CRIME

French Jew abused in possible hate crime (JTA)
A Jewish teenager was held captive and abused in a possible hate crime in a Paris suburb.

Six men, aged 17 to 25, were accused of locking up a 19-year-old Jew in a storage room and beating him and sexually tormenting him on Feb. 22, French police said Wednesday.

The incident occurred in Bagneux, the same town in which 23-year-old Ilan Halami was brutally attacked, tortured and killed in 2006 in an anti-Semitic crime.

The teen, identified only by his last name, Roumi, was lured to an apartment by assailants he knew, who who accused him of stealing, according to the report. They then handcuffed him to a radiator and abused him for more than nine hours, forcing him to swallow cigarette butts. They scrawled "dirty Jew" and "dirty faggot" on his face.

The case is being investigated as a hate crime. French Jews are pointing to the attack as a sign that Jews in the country should remain vigilant.

"The fact that the victim of the attack is a Jew played a role in this confinement accompanied by acts of violence and humiliation,” Richard Prasquier, head of the umbrella group of French Jewish organizations, CRIF, told reporters.

The six men, who are varying racial origins, were arrested on Feb. 27 and held for several days before being formally charged.