Judges and jurors recalled that Daoud Jafoufi “stabbed his uncle several times in the left cervical region, with determination, leaving him with no chance of survival.”and that he “caused the sudden and unexpected death of a man in the prime of life, which constitutes a serious violation of the most fundamental human right: the right to life.”.
However, they indicated in their judgment, it is necessary to take into account the “psychological fragility” of Daoud Jafoufi, and the fact that despite a “tendency towards marginalization”, he has “never been resistant to work” and that he “weaned himself off cannabis”.
The police quickly learned that the perpetrator of the stabbing was Daoud Jafoufi, the victim’s nephew. He was quickly intercepted on Avenue de la Liberté in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, wandering barefoot and wearing only underwear and a sweater.
The victim was transferred to Saint-Pierre hospital in Brussels in critical condition. She died a few minutes later from her injuries.
Daoud Jafoufi, who exhibited very unstable behavior during his arrest, was admitted to UZ hospital in Jette, where he was given a sedative. According to the mother of the accused, and sister of the victim, her son had not been in his normal state for several days. He felt spied on and thought the police suspected him of being a terrorist.
The psychiatric experts concluded that the accused was suffering at the time of the events from a mental disorder which had not abolished but altered his capacity for discernment and the control of his actions. According to them, Daoud Jafoufi does not suffer from a mental illness, but he presents “psychotic fragility”. At the time of the events, he was in the grip of a “psychotic decompensation episode”, they said. This episode, according to them, could have been caused by a state of stress due to an accumulation of worries and by heavy daily cannabis consumption for many years.
