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Killing of Sarah Halimi

SOLVED2017Belleville, Paris3 SOURCESUPDATED JUL 2026
Illustrative

Sarah Halimi, a 65-year-old retired French physician and former schoolteacher, was asleep in her third-floor apartment in the Belleville district of Paris when her 27-year-old neighbor, Kobili Traoré, broke in on 4 April 2017. A different family in a neighboring apartment, through which Traoré had passed to reach Halimi's unit, locked themselves in a bedroom and called police while Traoré could be heard shouting "Allahu Akbar" and declaring "I killed the Shaitan."

Police are reported to have initially gone to the wrong building, and once they arrived at the correct address they delayed entering while awaiting an elite unit, during which further calls to the emergency line reported a woman screaming. Paris prosecutor François Molins opened an investigation for deliberate homicide on 7 April 2017, stating that an antisemitic motive could not yet be confirmed but would be examined. On 9 April 2017, between 1,000 and 2,000 people marched in Halimi's memory in an event organized by the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF).

For several months, government officials and parts of the French press were criticized by public figures, including Bernard-Henri Lévy, for hesitating to describe the killing as antisemitic, despite Halimi being the only Jewish resident of the building. Traoré, who had prior convictions for violent offenses but no history of psychiatric hospitalization, was charged on 12 July 2017 with intentional homicide and forcible confinement. He acknowledged the facts of the killing to an investigating judge while denying an antisemitic motive, saying he had felt "possessed" and attributing his state to heavy cannabis use, which toxicology testing confirmed was in his system.

In September 2017 the prosecutor formally characterized the killing as antisemitic, and in February 2018 the lead investigator acknowledged the same in writing. In July 2019, an examining magistrate ruled that Traoré was likely not criminally responsible for his actions because heavy cannabis use had induced a temporary psychosis recognized under French law as "bouffée délirante"; the Paris Court of Appeal affirmed this finding later that year. In 2021, France's Court of Cassation, the country's final court of appeal, upheld the ruling, closing the domestic criminal process without a trial or conviction. Halimi's family's lawyers said they intended to pursue the case before the European Court of Human Rights.

President Emmanuel Macron publicly criticized the appellate finding in December 2019 and, after the 2021 Court of Cassation ruling, called for French law on criminal responsibility to be revised. A parliamentary report released in January 2022 concluded that police, the psychiatric hospital, and the court system had not acted inappropriately in the case; the report passed by a narrow 7-5 vote and drew criticism from Jewish organizations and media. The case was widely compared to the murder of Ilan Halimi (no relation), which had occurred eleven years earlier, and to the murder of Mireille Knoll less than a year later.

Key facts

Victims
Sarah Halimi
Date
2017
Location
Belleville, Paris
Case status
solved

Case timeline

  1. 2017-04-04

    Sarah Halimi, a 65-year-old retired physician, was beaten and then thrown from the third-floor window of her apartment in the Belleville district of Paris by her neighbor, Kobili Traoré, who had broken in; it is uncertain whether she died before the fall or as a result of it.

  2. 2017-04-07

    Paris prosecutor François Molins opened an investigation for deliberate homicide, stating the killing could not yet be considered antisemitic but that the possibility would be examined.

  3. 2017-04-09

    Between 1,000 and 2,000 people joined a march in Halimi's memory organized by the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), calling for the full truth of the case to be made public.

  4. 2017-06-20

    Halimi's sister-in-law filed a complaint over delays and lack of coordination in the police response on the night of the killing.

  5. 2017-07-10

    Traoré appeared before the investigating judge, acknowledged the facts of the killing, and denied an antisemitic motive, saying he had felt "possessed" and attributing his state to cannabis use.

  6. 2017-07-12

    Traoré was charged with intentional homicide against Halimi and with forcible confinement of a neighboring family whose apartment he had passed through to reach hers.

  7. 2017-09

    The prosecutor officially characterized the killing as an antisemitic crime.

  8. 2018-02

    The lead investigator acknowledged in writing the antisemitic nature of the killing.

  9. 2019-07

    An examining magistrate ruled that Traoré was likely not criminally responsible because heavy cannabis use had caused a temporary psychosis; the Paris Court of Appeal affirmed the finding later that year.

  10. 2021

    France's Court of Cassation, the country's final court of appeal, upheld the finding that Traoré was not criminally responsible, closing the domestic criminal process without a trial or conviction.

  11. 2021-04

    President Emmanuel Macron, reacting to the Court of Cassation's ruling, called for French law on criminal responsibility to be changed.

  12. 2022-01

    A parliamentary report on the case was released, concluding that police, the psychiatric hospital, and the court system had not acted inappropriately.

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People

  • Sarah Halimi

    VICTIM

    65-year-old retired French physician and schoolteacher, beaten and killed in her Paris apartment on 4 April 2017.

  • François Molins

    LAW ENFORCEMENT

    Paris prosecutor who opened the homicide investigation on 7 April 2017 and, in September 2017, officially characterized the killing as an antisemitic crime.

  • Kobili Traoré

    CHARGED

    Halimi's 27-year-old neighbor. He was charged on 12 July 2017 with intentional homicide and forcible confinement; courts ruled he was not criminally responsible due to a cannabis-induced psychotic episode, a finding affirmed by the Paris Court of Appeal and, in 2021, by France's Court of Cassation, its final court of appeal.

Roles reflect public records and court outcomes at the time of writing — supporting citations are on file under Sources.

Places

Belleville, Paris

48.8697, 2.3773

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Common questions

What happened to the victim?
Sarah Halimi, a 65-year-old retired Jewish physician, was beaten and thrown from the window of her Paris apartment in April 2017 after her neighbor broke in; the neighbor was charged with homicide, but courts ultimately ruled he was not criminally responsible due to a cannabis-induced psychotic episode, a finding upheld by France's highest court in 2021.
Where did the killing happen?
Belleville, Paris.
What is the current status of the case?
Status: solved.
More cases in France

Sources

  1. ENCYCLOPEDICKilling of Sarah HalimiWikipedia · 2026-07-12
  2. PRESSContemporaneous coverage — The New York TimesThe New York Times · 2026-07-12
  3. PRESSContemporaneous coverage — The Washington PostThe Washington Post · 2026-07-12

Record history

First published
JUL 13, 2026