French appeals court rejects antisemitism charge in poisoning of Jewish family by nanny

JTA – A French appeals court has ruled that a nanny from Algeria who was convicted of poisoning the Jewish family she worked for was not motivated by antisemitism. 

The decision by the Versailles Court of Appeal comes months after the nanny, identified as Leïla Y, 42, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison by the Nanterre criminal court in December for attempting to poison the Jewish family she worked for with cleaning supplies. 

During her arrest and a subsequent search of the home in February 2024, Leïla Y told police, “Because they have money and power, I should never have worked for a Jewish woman; she only brought me trouble.” 

Despite the nanny’s comments, the Nanterre court rejected the aggravating circumstance of antisemitism in the case, and the Versailles Court of Appeal ruled in its latest decision that the nanny’s remarks did not constitute antisemitic statements. 

The family’s lawyers, Patrick Klugman and Sacha Ghozlan, decried the ruling in a press release, saying that they would seek to appeal the decision again. 

“This decision makes judicial repression of antisemitism impossible and turns legal texts, meant to be protective, into mere useless scraps of paper,” Klugman and Ghozlan said. “Faced with such a decision, litigants risk losing all confidence in and protection from the judicial institution.” 

The lawyers called on the French Minister of Justice and the National School for the Judiciary to “thoroughly review both initial and ongoing training of judges in combating racism and antisemitism” and urged the prosecutor general to file an appeal “in the interest of society”. 

Yonathan Arfi, the President of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France, called the ruling “incomprehensible” in a post on X, adding that it “raises questions about the wilful blindness in French society towards antisemitism when it forms the backdrop of cases without being the sole element”. 

“Are there contexts that make antisemitic remarks acceptable to the point that the justice system refuses to see them?” Arfi continued. “This legitimation of antisemitism is one more step in its tragic banalisation since 7 October.” 

The ruling comes amid a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents in France since 7 October, and follows several high-profile court cases in recent years that have sparked outcry within the country’s Jewish community about how the French judiciary prosecutes antisemitism. 

On Thursday, French lawmakers withdrew an antisemitism bill ‒ hours before it was set for debate ‒ that would have made it illegal to “implicitly” condone or incite terrorism or call for the destruction of a state recognised by France. A similar law is expected to be introduced by French lawmakers in June.