Man Jailed In Ireland For Threatening To Behead Jews
(JTA) — A Dutch man living in Ireland was sentenced to five years in jail after threatening his two French housemates, praising the Islamic State and saying he would behead Jews.
Shmael Heirouche, 40, was sentenced Wednesday in Cork Circuit Criminal Court after pleading guilty to a charge of threatening to kill or cause serious harm, the Irish Independent reported.
Heirouche, who is of Moroccan ancestry, was diagnosed as schizophrenic in Holland. However, Judge Sean O’Donnabhain called his threats a serious matter and noted that society had a right to be protected. Heirouche has refused to accept psychiatric support services, according to the report.
Heirouche praised Islamic State terror attacks in France to his French housemates saying that they gave him “great joy,” and said that those who carried out the attacks would “get a first class ticket” to paradise, according to the report. At the time of his arrest he told officers that of he had a sword he would cut off the heads of Jews.
The housemates also told the court that Heirouche described them as Zionists and said that all Zionists should “have their throats cut.”
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism so that we can be prepared for whatever news 2025 brings.
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. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
