French prosecutors have asked for a life sentence for the ringleader of the murder of Parisian Jew Ilan Halimi. Youseff Fofana faces life behind bars for entrapping, sequestering, and torturing Halimi, whose family claims was due to anti-Semitism. Fofana’s two main accomplices, if convicted, each face up to 20 years imprisonment.
Ilan Halimi, 23, was kidnapped in France in January 2006 and subsequently tortured to death by a Muslim gang called the Barbarians. The gang took a photo showing Halimi’s face covered with duct tape, a bloodied nose, and a gun pointed towards his head. They subsequently sent the photo to Halimi’s family as proof that their ransom demands were serious.