French pay tribute to murdered student
VERSAILLES—Nearly 3,000 people on Friday attended the funeral of a Paris student who was raped and murdered in a case that has inflamed a French debate on immigration after a Moroccan was named as the suspected attacker.
The body of the 19-year-old, named only as Philippine, was found half-buried in a park in western Paris last weekend. The 22-year-old Moroccan suspect was arrested in Geneva.
Following a June-July election in which the far right performed strongly, politicians seized on the killing, demanding a crackdown on illegal immigration.
Rights groups and left-wingers said the focus should not be on immigration but rather on femicide.
Some 2,800 people attended the funeral inside and outside the Saint-Louis cathedral in Versailles on the outskirts of Paris, according to a police source.
‘Justice will do its job’
“We are here to weep, to pray,” said Pierre-Herve Grosjean, the priest presiding over the ceremony.
“Justice will do its job, this is really necessary but it is not enough,” he said according to a statement released to the media. He called on the mourners to “come out of this funeral a little better.”
Philippine was to be buried in a private ceremony in the neighboring Paris suburb of Montigny-le-Bretonneux.
“I thought it was important to come here to reflect and pay my respects,” one 15-year-old girl said at the funeral ceremony, clutching a bouquet of white and purple flowers.
Her mother, Anouck B., said many people were affected by the tragedy.
