This latest twist in the case of the attack in Romans-sur-Isère is likely to reignite the debate on criminal insanity. For, as Le Parisien reported on Wednesday December 14, a final psychiatric report concluded that the judgemental capacity of the main suspect in this terrorist knife attack, perpetrated in April 2020, had been suspended. As a reminder, on April 4, 2020, a 33-year-old Sudanese migrant named Abdallah Ahmed-Osman allegedly killed two people and injured five others during a murderous rampage in the town in the Drôme department.
The suspect was quickly arrested and taken into police custody. When he was arrested, he had recited the following words in Arabic: “Let the whole world hear that Islam is inevitably witness. I bear witness that there are no other gods but Allah and Mohamed is his messenger.” The National Counter-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office had quickly taken up the case. During a house search, investigators had come across a newspaper in which Abdallah Ahmed-Osma described himself as a “fighter in the land of the unbeliever”.
A first psychiatric report had concluded that the judgement capacity was impaired, but had ruled out incapacitation. The new expert opinion, however, revised this conclusion. The two psychiatric experts in charge of the case at the Paris Court of Appeal concluded that Adballah Ahmed-Osman “suffers from an acute psychotic state that has overridden his capacity to judge and control his actions”, as reported by Le Parisien. They considered that a delusion had motivated the man’s act and not an alleged Islamist ideology.
Thus, “the person is in no way amenable to a criminal sanction”, they stated in their report, which was submitted to anti-terrorism judges on November 7. As Le Parisien reports, the investigating judges could close the case if they follow the conclusions of this latest report. A trial would then not take place. The investigating judges also have the option of letting the jury decide on the criminal responsibility of the suspect, the newspaper reports.
The lawyer for several joint plaintiffs was prompt to regret to the newspaper Le Parisien that his clients were “appalled by the conclusions of this expert report, which contradict the first expert report”. He recalled that the victims of this attack indeed want a hearing to take place before a jury court. “We will fight for this to happen,” the lawyer promised.