Emmanuel Rist: what has become of the murderous profaner?

He worshiped the Third Reich. On April 30, 2004, swastikas and SS symbols were discovered on 127 graves in a Jewish cemetery of Herrlisheim, in the Bas-Rhin. This date had not been chosen at random by the individual who committed these acts, because it corresponded to the day of the anniversary of the death of Adolf Hitler.

In order to find the culprit, the government created a special cell. The gendarmes working on the investigation then think that a group of organized neo-Nazis, baptized “Tiwaz 2882″ could be the cause of the desecration.

Emmanuel Rist linked to several criminal cases

It was only a year and a half later that a suspect was arrested: Emmanuel Rist. But the latter was first arrested for another case. He was indeed accused of blowing up a shed in Rouffach, seriously injuring a Moroccan pensioner. And during his arrest at his home, the gendarmes noticed that he was wearing a military plate around his neck with the inscription “2882” on it, which allowed them to make the link between the desecration and the attack.

Then begins a long legal journey. Emmanuel Rist was first sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment for the desecration of the cemetery. He was then sentenced to 10 years in prison for the racist attack in Rouffach, then was tried again in 2011 for having killed a Moroccan carpet merchant in the middle of the street by shooting him at close range in 2001. A crime for which he was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment with a ten-year security sentence. Emmanuel Rist was tried for the last time in 2013 for the theft of 17 paintings from the Unterliden Museum in Colmar. In 2020, he was studying fine arts by correspondence at the Sorbonne from the central house of Ensisheim where he is serving his sentence until 2029.