"In the name of the French bishops, I express all my grief for the murder of young Ilan Halimi". This is the statement, spread today, of mgr. Jean-Pierre Ricard, archbishop of Bordeaux and president of the French Bishops’ Conference, about the murder of the young Jew Ilan Halimi, 23 years old, abducted in the Parisian suburbs by a gang of young people last January 21st and tortured until he died on February 13th. "I am thinking in particular of his parents and his relatives as well as of the French Jewish community, excusably offended by the atrocity of such murder. With all of them concluded mgr. Ricard, who will be made cardinal in the next consistory of March 24th by Benedict XVI I confide in justice, that it will shed light on this tragic event". As reported by the French police, the alleged head of the gang, Youssef Fofana, was arrested in the Ivory Coast, his native country where he had escaped. Along with him, seven of the thirteen young people of the gang are under indictment.
