Serbian law enforcement arrested 11 people last Monday for allegedly engaging in a series of antisemitic and anti-Muslim vandalism incidents in Paris at the behest of a foreign intelligence service, the Serbian Interior Ministry announced.
A twelfth at-large suspect, supposedly acting on the instructions of an intelligence service, allegedly organized and trained a group of Serbian citizens in the republic’s territory in order to incite hatred and violence against certain peoples.
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The cell, facing charges of criminal conspiracy, racial discrimination, and espionage, were allegedly behind the vandalization of five Jewish sites in France in May.
The Shoah Memorial Holocaust Museum had been splashed with green paint, in addition to three synagogues and a kosher restaurant. The Wall of the Righteous, dedicated to those who rescued French Jews during the Holocaust, was also vandalized with green paint that day.
The eleven suspects had also allegedly placed pig heads near Muslim religious buildings in the Paris area.
In an incident at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the group had also allegedly placed fake skeletons with “written messages.”
The Wall of the Righteous had previously been vandalized with red hand prints last May, which Le Canard Enchaîné reported was allegedly carried out by Bulgarian citizens supposedly linked to Russian intelligence services. Similarly stenciled red hands were found in the Marais district, where the synagogues and restaurant were doused with green paint this May.
Alleged ties to Russia
Russia had been tied to a November graffiti incident by the French Foreign Ministry. The ministry alleged that Russia had amplified the images of blue stars of David in Paris stenciled onto Parisian walls, which Russia denied. Two Moldovan citizens had admitted to engaging in the vandalism at the behest of someone abroad.
