Couple get life for French child murder

THE Israeli grandfather and French mother of a four-year-old French girl were sentenced to life in prison yesterday for having murdered the child, public radio reported.

A court in the Israeli town of Petah Tikva, close to Tel Aviv, sided with the prosecutor who sought the maximum terms for Ronny Ron, the grandfather of Rose Pizem, and the child’s mother, Marie-Charlotte Renaud.

Renaud was in a relationship with Ron, the father of her ex-husband, Rose’s father.

On May 19, the court convicted Ron of killing the little girl, whose remains were found in a suitcase in a murky river near Tel Aviv in September 2008 after weeks of intensive searches and speculation.

And it convicted Renaud for having “solicited” the murder, saying she used her sway with Ron to convince him to carry out the crime.

“The accused incited her companion to get rid of Rose, knowing the influence she had on him and the possible consequences for Rose,” the court said yesterday, according to a copy of the sentence read on public radio.

Ron, the court added, “who has a violent personality, finding no other solution, decided to kill Rose and sink her in the river to get rid of her”.

Attorneys for the two said they would appeal the sentence.

The case shocked Israel, both for the gruesome murder of a young girl and the messy family background.

Rose’s parents, Renaud and Benjamin Pizem, moved to Israel from France in 2004, but divorced the following year after Pizem discovered his wife was having an affair with Ron, his father.

Pizem moved back to France, but Renaud stayed behind with Ron and obtained custody of her daughter. The couple now have two children of their own.

Israeli police have described the case as “one of the most shocking in the country’s history”.