Alps playground attacker to stand trial for attempted murder of 13 victims
Abdalmasih Hanoun will face trial at Haute-Savoie Assize Court after a knife attack on 13 people, including a British toddler, at a French Alps park in June 2023.
Alps playground knife attacker to face attempted murder trial in Annecy
Abdalmasih Hanoun, accused of stabbing 13 people — among them a British three-year-old girl — at a playground in Le Paquier, southeast France, will stand trial for attempted murder, French prosecutors announced on Wednesday, bbc.com reports.
The attack occurred on 8 June 2023 at a park in the Haute-Savoie region. Four children, aged between 22 months and three years, were among those wounded. The British toddler, who was visiting the area with her parents, sustained a single stab wound but was later confirmed to be in a stable condition. One other child was a Dutch national; the remaining two were French nationals from the Haute-Savoie region. Two adults were also injured but were subsequently said to be out of danger.
Hanoun faces charges of attempted murder in relation to all 13 victims, violence with a weapon without total work incapacity in relation to two victims, and armed resistance. The French public prosecutor's office said he will appear before the Haute-Savoie Assize Court in Annecy within the next year.
The prosecutor's statement confirmed that a panel of experts had assessed the defendant's mental state and found he had not been "suffering from a psychological or neuropsychological disorder" at the time of the attack. This determination, the statement said, meant there were "no grounds justifying the decision not to indict Mr Abdalmasih Hanoun".
Prosecutors also noted that the decision to proceed to trial remains subject to appeal.
Source: Google News IE — Crime (en)