Following an incident that saw several dozen stencils depicting the Star of David tagged on the facades of various buildings in central Paris and the city’s suburbs last week, authorities have arrested two Moldovan nationals whose actions may have been carried out at the behest of someone linked to Russian interests.
After being apprehended by authorities last Friday, October 3rd, the Moldovan couple, a 33-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman, both of whom are living in France illegally, admitted to painting the Star of David on the building facades and claimed they had acted at the directive of an unidentified individual, the daily newspaper Ouest France reports.
The couple, who had been reported by a local resident who witnessed them “tagging a blue star,” have been arrested for “property damage” linked to “origin, race, ethnicity, or religion,” the Paris prosecutor’s office told the French radio station Europe 1. Legal proceedings against the couple were subsequently suspended due to “sanctions of another nature,” meaning their “expulsion from the country,” the prosecutor added.
In a statement, the public prosecutor’s office said it plans to investigate “the intention underlying these tags, in particular with regard to the geopolitical context and its impact within the population in France.” It suggested that actions may have been conducted with the intention to sow further discord within France’s tinderbox of a society, which is already deeply divided along cultural and religious lines.
The office also noted that it “has not been established that this star has an antisemitic connotation, but that this cannot be ruled out straight away.”
Speaking to BFMTV, Paris’ prefect of police Laurent Nuñez, who formerly served as France’s National Coordinator for Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism, said the act of vandalism was an “atypical case compared to other antisemitic acts,” and added the perpetrators, who targeted “certain buildings where no members of the Jewish community lived,” had the “desire for these stars to be seen.”
Now, investigators are looking into the “unknown third party” believed to be linked to interests favorable to Russia. Speaking to the French broadcaster BFMTV about the ongoing investigation, a high-ranking police source said: “There are many disturbing elements in this case which point back to an external third party, linked to Russian interests,” noting that—instead of Russia, or someone based in Russia, being directly involved—it is possible the actions were directed by intermediaries.
French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne on Tuesday posted a video on X, formerly Twitter, in which she vowed to condemn those accused of antisemitism in France, saying: “Nothing justifies hatred and violence.”
“It’s the duty of our country to combat this. It’s the duty of the republic to protect all the Jews of France,” she added.
