The man suffering from schizophrenia who briefly kidnapped a 3-year-old child from the courtyard of the Hugo-de-Senger school in Plainpalais on September 14, 2023, will remain in pre-trial detention. In a judgment published on Friday, the Federal Court (TF) ruled in favor of the Geneva courts, which had rejected his request for release at the end of August, then at the end of September.
The TF notes that when the man (who had acted in a state of criminal irresponsibility) is judged, the imposition of an institutional measure cannot be excluded. In other words, it is possible that therapeutic treatment in a closed environment may be imposed on him. Experts have rated his risk of violent recurrence as “low to moderate” — but as long as he complies with his monitoring and medication. However, the person concerned has already, “in the past, interrupted his treatment, which led (…) to several hospitalizations in a psychiatric environment in France, for the last time from August 7 to September 5, 2023”, i.e. nine days before the kidnapping episode.
Consequently, given “the seriousness of the alleged acts”, “the importance of the disorder” from which the man suffers and “his propensity to interrupt his previous treatments”, the TF does not consider it excessive to extend his pre-trial detention.
As a reminder, he is accused of kidnapping and kidnapping, criminal preparatory acts of murder and prevention of carrying out an official act. On the day of the incident, he grabbed the toddler “with the aim of killing him”, summarizes the TF. The little one’s sister, aged 16, had tried in vain to prevent him from fleeing, before a witness managed to make him let go of his prey. He was arrested the same day.
His lawyer, Me Tano Barth, disputes that his client had murderous intentions. “He used the term ‘kill’ during an informal exchange with the police, without a lawyer and in the midst of a breakdown.” Above all, he finds it “really regrettable that a schizophrenic person is kept in detention. He has been there since September 2023. We have no idea when he will be tried, while experts recommend outpatient treatment. The TF passes the hot potato to the trial judge. This illustrates the problem with our judicial system: it is only from the judgment that treatment can begin.”
