Knife attack in Annecy: suspect referred to assizes for attempted murder
A thirty-year-old Syrian will be tried before the assizes for attempted murder after stabbing four very young children and two adults on a playground in Annecy in June 2023.
Knife attack in Annecy: suspect referred to assizes for attempted murder
A thirty-year-old Syrian will be tried before the assizes for attempted murder after stabbing four very young children and two adults on a playground in Annecy in June 2023. Magistrate Line Bonnet announced this referral on Wednesday 3 June, clarifying that the investigating judges believe the accused suffers from disorders that impaired, although without abolishing, his capacity for discernment.
The facts date back to 8 June 2023, in the old town centre of the Haute-Savoie prefecture. The man had then targeted children in a play area, seriously wounding four of them, whose ages ranged from 22 to 36 months. Two adults were also injured during this assault, which had sent shockwaves through the community.
The investigation was marked by a psychiatric debate. An initial evaluation had concluded that the accused could not be held criminally responsible, his discernment being completely abolished. This assessment would have ruled out any criminal trial. A counter-expertise, however, moderated this diagnosis, establishing merely an impairment of his faculties of judgment, compatible with a hearing before the criminal court. It was this second analysis that ultimately prevailed with the judges.
The individual's background reveals a complex migratory history. Originally from Syria and of Christian faith, he had left his country in the midst of conflict, travelled through Turkey, then obtained asylum in Sweden at the end of 2013. His application for naturalisation had, however, failed. In March 2022, following his separation from his wife, also Syrian and a refugee in Scandinavia, he had left Swedish territory, leaving her with the custody of their three-year-old daughter. His journey subsequently took him through Italy and Switzerland before he settled in Annecy in October 2022, where he lived without stable accommodation until the day of the attack.
The referral to the assize court, in line with the public prosecutor's submissions, is not final: it can still be challenged by appeal, the prosecutor clarified. The information had been initially revealed by the daily newspaper Le Figaro.
Source: France Info
Source: France Info