Maizières-lès-Metz cemetery desecration: 96 graves vandalized

A 32-year-old woman has been involuntarily hospitalized following the desecration of nearly 100 Catholic graves in the old cemetery of Maizières-lès-Metz, in the Moselle department of France.

On the morning of September 15, residents alerted authorities to the vandalism. Investigators found that 96 graves had been targeted, with crosses and crucifixes systematically broken and scattered on the ground. The prosecutor, David Touvet, stated that the investigation is being conducted under the charge of “violation or profanation of a grave or monument erected to the memory of the dead, committed because of the true or supposed belonging of the deceased to a determined religion.”

The suspect voluntarily presented herself to law enforcement at the scene later that afternoon and confessed to the acts. Due to her mental state, her police custody was lifted in favor of mandatory hospitalization. The mayor of Maizières-lès-Metz, Julien Freyburger, condemned the act as a targeted attack against the Catholic religion, while the Prefect of Moselle, Pascal Bolot, expressed firm condemnation of the violence against a place of dignity.