Sarah Halimi

asked 5 years ago

Hello, have you heard about what is happening now in France about Sarah Halimi, a 70-year-old Jewish woman who was murdered by a man who was taking drugs and yelling in Arabic, “Ala Walker,” and in France they said he would not be charged and would not go to jail because since he was taking drugs, he was not aware of what he was doing. What do you think about that? Can a willful lack of awareness (meaning he puts himself in a position where he will not be aware) exonerate the guilty? Is the morality of an act measured by the awareness of the doer?

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מיכי Staff answered 5 years ago

This is a legal question, not a moral one. Morality is certainly measured by awareness. A person who harms by rape while asleep is not immoral. But of course, if he has contributory guilt, such as negligence, then he is responsible, morally and criminally. In this case, as you describe it (I haven’t heard of him), it seems that he definitely has contributory guilt: 1. He lived in an antisemitic value atmosphere and adopted these values (the fact that he actually murdered a Jewish woman), and he took drugs and thus put himself in a dangerous situation with his own hands. It seems very strange to me that a person who committed a crime while under the influence of drugs is not charged. In car accidents and other crimes, this is no excuse, as far as I know. I am not sure that your description of the case is accurate. It should be remembered that opinions in the press and on the Internet do not always fully reflect reality and legal considerations.

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EA replied 5 years ago

Thanks for the answer, I understand. Search the Internet in Hebrew or English for Sarah Halimi, and you will see that one man beat her at night, and then threw her out of the window from the 3rd floor. True to the truth! But the court in France did not charge him and did nothing to him (nothing enough, at least) because he took a drug and was not aware! It created a lively emotion in France and a crisis, is anyone talking about it now? Maybe you will look online and find out, it is very scary... Where did justice go?