Agitation in France after the murder of a teenage girl victim of cyberbullying

PARIS.- The murder of a teenage girl beaten and thrown into the Seine by two companions in a Parisian suburb, shocked France and reopened the debate on the phenomenon of violence and harassment among young people.

The young woman’s body Alisha, 14, was found by police in the Seine, near Argenteuil, a suburb north of Paris, Monday evening, with signs of violence. The two suspects, a boy and a 15-year-old girl, who have a romantic relationship and they were classmates of the victim, were charged Wednesday night with murder and face 20 years in prison.

Alisha, he said, had agreed to meet the young girl on Monday afternoon, at the Quai Saint-Denis, in Argenteuil. After a few minutes, the boy, “hidden behind a pillar”, allegedly approached and kicked and hit Alisha several times. She was thrown into the river and drowned.

The death of the young woman, who made the headlines of several newspapers, has been condemned by the French government. “What happened to this young woman is terrible and vile,” executive spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Wednesday. “The harassment took her, a vicious cycle that contributed to this tragedy,” he added, and said the culprits would be punished. This death also put the problem of youth gangs in France on the table., after several very violent clashes between adolescents in recent months, especially in Paris and its surroundings.

“We cannot accept the trivialization of violence,” said Attal, who explained the need for “a faster and more effective criminal response for minors.”

According to the first elements of the investigation revealed to the press on Wednesday evening by Pontoise prosecutor Eric Corbaux Alisha was killed in an ambush under a road viaduct near Paris. In this place far from view, the young woman was allegedly brutally beaten and then thrown into the river, still conscious.

The relationship between the trio, which they studied at the same school in the third year of high school, “Three friends at the beginning”, had deteriorated in recent weeks, between loves and “anecdotes” of adolescents, according to Corbaux. The two suspects had been temporarily expelled from their vocational school for harassing the victim.. Alisha’s phone had been hacked and photos of her in her underwear were posted on Snapchat.

To this episode is added a fight between the two girls on the school grounds and the young man’s anger against Alisha, who according to him, “had spoken badly about his late father. It was “such an anecdote that would have justified the desire to do something to the victim,” Corbaux said. The two defendants were to appear before a disciplinary council on Tuesday, the day after the tragedy.

During questioning, the two teenagers “did not express any immediate regret”.said Corbaux ”. We are talking about young people who are barely 15 years old ”, he said, before adding:“ We are not talking about something totally rational ”.

A march will take place Sunday in Argenteuil in memory of Alisha, according to the mayor of this city of 110,000 inhabitants. The walk will start at the Cognacq-Jay school, where the three young people were students, and will end on the banks of the Seine.

AFP