Tunisian Chief Rabbi and member of the Conference of European Rabbis Haim Bitan responded Tuesday to the brutal murder of a Jewish man from Tunisia in France ten days ago and called for a full investigation into the murder.
"We were shocked to hear about the murder of our citizen from Djerba, Eyal ben Michael, who was murdered by a criminal in France. We ask the French government to try the murderer according to the severity of the law and to conduct a transparent investigation and the prosecution of the despicable murderer, in order to prevent more cases like these," Rabbi Bitan said.
Eyal Haddad, a 34-year-old Jew, was murdered on August 20 by his Muslim neighbor in Longperrier, France. the antisemitism monitoring website BNVCA reported.
The Muslim killer, Baha Dridi, turned himself in to the police and claimed that his Jewish neighbor owed him 100 euros and did not repay the debt, which led him to commit the brutal murder. He later admitted that the fact that his neighbor was Jewish was also one of the motives for the murder.
Haddad's family began to worry about him after he did not make contact for several days, and turned to Deridi to ask if he had seen his Jewish neighbor. A short time later, Dridi turned himself in to the local police and said that he brutally murdered Haddad and hid his body. Haddad's body, partially mutilated, was discovered in an open field in Longperrier
According to the report on the BNVCA website, Dridi even began to burn Haddad's face, after crushing his skull, and only then buried him.