A CNews journalist and her partner were victims of a violent assault on public transport in Paris on Friday, August 22nd. Her male companion was stabbed seven times for trying to defend her and had to be hospitalised in serious condition. This is not the first time the journalist has been the victim of an assault, and she is struggling to overcome the trauma.
The couple were approached late at night on the tram that circles the capital. Isabelle Pibouleau, a journalist at CNews, was persistently accosted, jostled, and then insulted by a man on board before her partner came to her defence. When they got off the tram, the two men exchanged punches. The journalist’s partner was attacked with a knife and struck several times before his attacker finally fled.
The victim had to be taken to hospital in a serious condition. Of the seven wounds inflicted by his attacker, two are perforating. Although his life is not in danger, his recovery is expected to take several weeks.
The identities of the journalist and her partner were not immediately disclosed by the press. However, the journalist wanted to come forward to pay tribute to her boyfriend, who defended her at the risk of his own life.
Pibouleau recounted that she had already been the victim of an assault, this time sexual, a little over a year ago in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. When the attacker assaulted her on the tram that August evening, it felt like she was reliving those painful moments.
”The fear I felt on Friday evening is indescribable. I am very afraid psychologically about the weeks and months to come. I felt the scars of my previous attack just by seeing the look in this individual’s eyes, which I will never forget for the rest of my life,” she explained on the CNews set, where she came to give her testimony.
The attacker was identified by witnesses. He was eventually located and arrested. The suspect is well-known to the police, according to a police source. Named Debe Issa N., aged 42 and born in Senegal, he was taken into custody for attempted murder.
The journalist is calling for “justice to be done,” but on social media, scepticism prevails.
“Yes, lack of public safety is omnipresent, and this tragedy is not just a ‘news item’,” said Claire Geronimi, who was raped in Paris by a migrant under OQTF (orders to leave French territory) in 2023. She has since founded an association, Éclats de femme, to give a voice to women who have been assaulted by migrants and whose suffering is denied by feminists in the name of anti-racism.
