Two teenage boys in a Paris suburb have been booked with preliminary charges of raping a 12-year-old girl and religion-motivated violence, said the French authorities on Wednesday.
On Saturday, the girl — whom, a Jewish leader said is Jewish — reported a rape in the town of Courbevoie and three boys, aged 12 and 13 were detained, according to the regional prosecutor's office, reported AP.
The prosecutor's office said two of the boys were given multiple preliminary charges on Tuesday. The charges include aggravated gang rape on a minor younger than 15, violence and public insult motivated by religion, death threats, attempted extortion and unlawfully recording or broadcasting sexual images, the AP report added.
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The girl's religion and her identity were not revealed by the authorities under the policies for the protection of victims.
Later, lawyer and Jewish leader Elie Korchia said that the girl was Jewish, during an interview with French broadcaster BFM, and that Palestine was mentioned during the attack.
The girl told the police that she was approached by three boys aged between 12 and 13 at a park near her home in the suburb, reported AFP quoting police sources as saying.
She was dragged into a shed where the accused minors beat her and "forced" her to have sex "while uttering death threats and anti-Semitic remarks", the AFP report added.
The girl also alleged that she had been called a "dirty Jew". One of the boys asked about "her Jewish religion" and Israel, according to the AFP report.
The rape was filmed by one boy while another threatened to kill her if she told authorities about her ordeal, police sources said.
French President Emmanuel Macron condemned antisemitism in the light of the assault on the girl. He also asked the Minister of Education, Nicole Belloubet, to ensure that over the next few days schools hold a dialogue on the topics of racism and hatred of Jews to prevent "hateful speech with serious consequences" from "infiltrating" classrooms, reported BBC.
The incident has sparked nationwide outrage in France as people took to the streets on Wednesday to protest against anti-Semitism, carrying banners including one that read: "It could have been your sister."