The Paris Criminal Court began hearing the trial today of four Bulgarians accused of spraying red handprints on the Holocaust Memorial in May 2024 - a case marred by allegations of foreign interference, Agence France-Presse reported, BTA reported.
This case is part of a series of attempts at destabilization aimed at "sowing discord and division" in French society, Paris prosecutor Laure Becuo said in September. She cited a total of nine cases related to foreign interference, including the spraying of red paint on blue Stars of David in the Paris region in October 2020; the coffins placed at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, covered with the French flag and the inscription "French soldiers in Ukraine" in June 2024; and at the earliest – in September – the placement of pig heads in front of several mosques in the Paris area.
Three people are in pre-trial detention after being extradited from Croatia and Bulgaria for the red-handed graffiti, while a fourth person who is absconding "has an arrest warrant issued and could be tried in absentia," prosecutors said in July.
The three defendants are charged with criminal damage as part of a group and based on an alleged conspiracy to commit a crime motivated by racial, ethnic or religious motives.
A fourth person, suspected of having made the transport and accommodation reservations for the main perpetrators, will be charged with complicity in causing serious damage and criminal conspiracy.
The trial is expected to last three days. All those accused of it face up to seven years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros.
On the night of May 13-14, 2024, 35 red handprints - a symbol that could be linked to the killing of Israeli soldiers in Ramallah, in the West Bank in 2000 - were painted on the Wall of the Righteous at the Holocaust Memorial, located in the heart of the French capital.
Several dozen similar prints were found on the walls of the 4th and 5th arrondissements of Paris.
Memorial guards "captured two people" while they were applying stencils, but they managed to escape, the prosecutor's office said. The suspects were identified after reviewing security cameras and tracking their phones, flight tickets and hotel reservations.
Three of the suspects boarded a bus to Brussels on May 14 and then immediately flew to Sofia.
During the judicial investigation, "the hypothesis emerged that this action appears to fit into attempts to destabilize France, orchestrated by Russian intelligence services," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.
This act is part of a "broader strategy aimed at spreading false information and dividing public opinion in France or inflaming internal tensions through the use of "puppets" - people who do not work for these services but are paid by them for specific tasks through intermediaries, particularly in countries neighboring Russia," the statement added.