Image by Getty Images

A French-Jewish teacher who in November told police he had been assaulted by Jihadists was arrested on suspicion that he lied about the attack.

Rabbi Tsion Saadon was taken into custody Wednesday following the discovery of inconsistencies in his account of the alleged Nov. 18, 2015 attack, which prompted passionate condemnations by police and even by President Francois Hollande, the La Provance daily reported.

On Nov. 18, police in Marseille briefed media outlets, relaying to them the version given to them by the alleged victim. He said he was stabbed by a man wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the symbol of the Islamic State terrorist group, who shouted anti-Semitic profanities at him with two other men.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Saadon, a history teacher at the Marseille’s Yavne Jewish day school, displayed what appeared to be minor injuries.

One of the two men whom Saadon said did not assault him physically showed him a picture of Mohammed Merah, the killer of four Jews in Toulouse in 2012, on his cell phone during the attack, he told police.

But the injuries that Saadon showed police as resulting from the incident were inconsistent with the version he gave, an unnamed police source told La Provance. Saadon is suspected of giving a false deposition and may be indicted, another unnamed police source is quoted as saying.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount