"I don't take you, you filthy Jew." A taxi driver will be tried on May 6 by the criminal court of Créteil for death threats and discrimination "because of religion" against a family on arrival at Orly airport, the prosecutor's office said on Wednesday (November 22nd), confirming information from the Canard Enchaîné.
The 28-year-old driver refused to pick up the family and initially said, "I'm not taking you, you dirty Jew," the prosecutor's office said. He then said "twice", in French and Arabic, "a language that the victim understands": "If I had taken you in my taxi, I would have slit the throat of you, your wife and your children," the prosecution added.
The incident occurred on 11 October. The victim reported them the same day to the users' department and the administrative police of the Paris prefecture.
The family — the parents and their three children — were returning from Israel, according to the Canard Enchaîné.
The investigation has been entrusted to the passenger transport control unit of the Prefecture of Police, the prosecutor's office said, adding that "the exploitation of the airport's video surveillance" had made it possible to identify the taxi driver.
The family did not file a complaint "for fear of reprisals"
Brought before the court on 9 November, he was placed under judicial supervision for "repeated death threats on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nation or religion" and "discrimination based on religion" for refusing the family a taxi.
The family did not file a complaint "for fear of reprisals," the prosecutor's office added.
The driver, who is self-employed but worked with the G7 company, among others, has been removed from the platform's lists, the company said.
"We would like to condemn in the strongest possible terms all forms of violence and discrimination," G7 said in a statement, adding that the race in question was not ordered through their platform.
The Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, denounced on X "an act of absolute gravity" and announced that the driver "was suspended from all activity". A "disciplinary procedure" has been launched against the accused, he added. "We won't let anything pass."
In France, a total of 1,518 anti-Semitic acts and remarks have been recorded since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, resulting in nearly 600 arrests, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said last week.
With AFP
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