‘Give my daughter treatment’pleads hoaxer’s mother

PARIS, July 14 (AFP) – The mother of a 23-year-old French woman who admitted she had lied about being the victim of an anti-Semitic attack said Wednesday she hoped her daughter would receive treatment, but that justice would be done.  

“It’s not right that she has put France in such a state. There were demonstrations for her. I don’t accept this kind of thing, and so I want justice to be done,” the unidentified mother told RTL radio.  

“But if this happened because she is sick, please let her get some help,” the mother added.   On Tuesday, France was left reeling after the 23-year-old woman admitted she had lied about being attacked by a group of youths, whom she had accused of slashing her clothes and drawing swastikas on her stomach.  

The purported assault sparked outrage across France and sharp condemnations from across the political spectrum, including from President Jacques Chirac, whose government is leading a high-profile campaign to stamp out anti-Semitism.  

The woman was placed in preventive detention on Tuesday, on suspicion of falsely reporting a crime.  

“The first declarations of the young woman reveal that her accusations were lies and that she had been making it all up,” the public prosecutor’s office in the Paris suburb of Pontoise said late Tuesday in a statement.  

On RTL, the woman’s mother said “we knew she was fragile” and that she had already received psychiatric care, but added: “You can’t treat someone against their will.”