PARIS, April 11, 2006 (AFP) - Two men suspected of taking part in the kidnapping, torture and murder of a young Jewish man, in a crime that shocked France, have turned themselves in to the authorities, police said Tuesday.

A first suspect -- a 20-year-old man of African origin from Bobigny north of Paris -- surrendered to police on Monday, followed by a second on Tuesday. Both have been taken into custody.

The men are believed to be among the last remaining members of a kidnapping gang led by Youssouf Fofana, a 25-year-old French Muslim citizen, considered the mastermind of the crime.

Fofana is under criminal investigation for kidnapping and murder aggravated by anti-Semitism. Some 20 others are also facing possible charges.

Ilan Halimi, 23, was lured into a sex-trap before being abducted for ransom in January. He was tortured for several weeks in flat in a Paris suburb, and dumped, naked and gagged, on a roadside. He died a few hours later.

Many in France's 600,000-strong Jewish community saw the crime as a terrible example of a rising trend of anti-Semitism in France, particularly among the country's five million Muslims.

Copyright AFP

Subject: French news