assassijn
18-08-04, 18:49
(bron: IOL)
Lyon, France - A 24-year-old unemployed Frenchman has told investigators he desecrated a Jewish cemetery and attacked a man of North African origin with an axe because he craved media attention, judicial officials said on Monday.
An investigating judge in Lyon put Michael Tronchon under investigation for "attempted murder with racist intent" and "degradation of property in a religious place".
He turned himself in to police in Paris on Saturday and admitted the attack and the desecration, the officials said.
"This is a man who is fascinated by the media. He read or watched everything that was reported about him," one source close to the investigation said. "You get the feeling that he gave himself up so he would be in the spotlight."
Tronchon, who lived alone in a suburb of Lyon in eastern France, was driven by racism and a fascination with the media, said Lyon public prosecutor Xavier Richaud.
"Our understanding is that he acted alone and is not linked directly to a group," Richaud told a news conference. "He is methodical, organised and openly and profoundly anti-Arab."
Under a new anti-racism measure in France, Tronchon faces life in prison if found guilty of attempted murder with racist intent. Official investigation is one step short of pressing charges in France.
Tronchon daubed swastikas and "SS" on 56 graves in the Jewish cemetery in Lyon last week after the axe attack on the North African man the week before attracted little press interest, Richaud said. The victim was seriously injured.
More than 300 tombs or graves have been desecrated in eastern France since April - many in Jewish cemeteries but also some Muslim and a few Christian graves - despite a drive led by President Jacques Chirac to eradicate racism.
In the latest desecration in France, vandals drew a swastika and wrote "death to the Jews" on a low wall in front of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris early on Saturday, the first such act in the French capital after the recent attacks in eastern France.
HYPE HYPE HYPE :D
Lyon, France - A 24-year-old unemployed Frenchman has told investigators he desecrated a Jewish cemetery and attacked a man of North African origin with an axe because he craved media attention, judicial officials said on Monday.
An investigating judge in Lyon put Michael Tronchon under investigation for "attempted murder with racist intent" and "degradation of property in a religious place".
He turned himself in to police in Paris on Saturday and admitted the attack and the desecration, the officials said.
"This is a man who is fascinated by the media. He read or watched everything that was reported about him," one source close to the investigation said. "You get the feeling that he gave himself up so he would be in the spotlight."
Tronchon, who lived alone in a suburb of Lyon in eastern France, was driven by racism and a fascination with the media, said Lyon public prosecutor Xavier Richaud.
"Our understanding is that he acted alone and is not linked directly to a group," Richaud told a news conference. "He is methodical, organised and openly and profoundly anti-Arab."
Under a new anti-racism measure in France, Tronchon faces life in prison if found guilty of attempted murder with racist intent. Official investigation is one step short of pressing charges in France.
Tronchon daubed swastikas and "SS" on 56 graves in the Jewish cemetery in Lyon last week after the axe attack on the North African man the week before attracted little press interest, Richaud said. The victim was seriously injured.
More than 300 tombs or graves have been desecrated in eastern France since April - many in Jewish cemeteries but also some Muslim and a few Christian graves - despite a drive led by President Jacques Chirac to eradicate racism.
In the latest desecration in France, vandals drew a swastika and wrote "death to the Jews" on a low wall in front of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris early on Saturday, the first such act in the French capital after the recent attacks in eastern France.
HYPE HYPE HYPE :D