27 February 2016 - 09:13
Jewish teacher who claimed he was attacked by ISIS jihadists arrested

A Jewish teacher in France who claimed he was attacked by ISIS jihadists was taken into custody, accused of lying to police.

AhlulBayt News Agency - A Jewish teacher in France who claimed he was attacked by ISIS jihadists was taken into custody, accused of lying to police.

Tzion Saadon, 45, invited the press to his house in Marseille the day after the supposed attack in November, saying he had been beaten by three men claiming to represent the jihadist group.

But police today said the teacher had been arrested for allegedly fabricating the story.

He is not the only French teacher to be accused of lying about an IS attack.

In January, a nursery school teacher was sent for psychiatric tests after admitting he lied about an attack in his classroom.

Both now face prison.  

Saadoun reported the attack last November, soon after 130 people were murdered by ISIS terrorists during the Paris terror attacks.

He claimed a 'determined gang' of three men confronted him in the 13th district of Marseille, shouting in support of the murderous group.

The teacher, who worked at the Yavne Jewish schoolin the southern city, claimed two knives were used to slash him in the arms, legs and stomach.

Saadoun alleged one of the youths wore 'an ISIS T-shirt' and used his mobile phone to show him a photo of Mohamed Merah, the Al-Qaeda gunman who murdered Jews and Muslims near Toulouse four years ago.

The teacher spent a night in hospital, and insisted that he was a victim of rising anti-Semitism in the country.

His vivid description of the attack, included the assailants shouting insults about Jews, initially meant he was taken seriously as a victim.  

However, there were no independent witnesses, and forensic examinations later suggested Saadoun had caused the knifes lashes himself.

After a three month investigation, police have now decided to charge him with lying to police and disrupting an inquiry.

In December, another pro-Israel teacher was taken into custody after saying he was attacked by an 'ISIS aggressor'.  

Stephane Aroule, 45, is also said to have tried to spread hatred against Muslims by fabricating the stabbing.

He sparked a full-scale terrorist alert when he said a man wearing a balaclava and brandishing a box cutter and scissors had entered the Jean-Perrin nursery school in the Paris suburb of Aubervilliers.

The area has a large Muslim population, many of whom have complained of stigmatisation in the wake of the terrorist attacks last November.

Police took Aroule to hospital, but he only had self-inflicted scratches on his body and was quickly released.

Following questioning, he confessed to making the story up to try and spread mistrust and suspicion of Muslims.   

Aroule was placed under formal criminal investigation for 'reporting imaginary crimes' - an offence that is punishable by up to six months in prison and around £5,500.




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