The young Afghan was able to be neutralized by a municipal police officer in Perpignan after chasing a passerby with a knife in her hand.
After three weeks of pre-trial detention, the time needed to postpone the trial for medical examinations, the man was tried on June 12, 2024 and declared criminally irresponsible. He was immediately placed in a psychiatric facility.
It was on May 13 that a panicked call came into the Perpignan municipal police switchboard. A man armed with a knife had chased a passerby in the city center. The woman had taken refuge in a store and the individual was still on the run.
Equipped with a precise description, the agents set out to find the suspect. He was spotted quite quickly. He sits on the steps of the media library and cuts a piece of wood with his knife. The police approach and ask him to put down the weapon. Far from complying, the sculptor stands up and points his blade at the official. Who only has time to use his electric pulse gun to neutralize him.
I don’t want to work, I want to walk
After some procrastination, the nationality of the troublemaker is finally established. He is Afghan and is subject to an obligation to leave French territory. We still need to find a Pashto language interpreter. The professional therefore translates the young man’s disjointed remarks. He claims to have arrived in Europe alone. He would have worked two months in Belgium and left on foot towards France. “But I don’t want to work, I want to walk!” He avoids any personal questions. The psychiatric expert notes “pathological wandering, a dangerous condition which requires rapid placement in a specialized hospital”. He diagnoses him as schizophrenic and therefore notes an abolition of discernment. Which means that he is criminally irresponsible.
The strange Afghan Forest Gump nevertheless goes before the court because only the judge can order the placement.
“And abolition does not exempt from the reparation of the damageadds in civil action M.e Alté-Morales, lawyer of the police officer she recallsthe “exceptional coolness in view of the serious injuries he incurred while intervening.”
While the interpreter explains to the defendant that the court has noted his irresponsibility and ordered his placement in Thuir Hospital, the patient looks, laughing, at the portraits of Voltaire and Montaigne which adorn the walls of the courtroom.
