Mohamed L. is being released in France after just 4 years in detention, the same man who brutally murdered 40-year-old military doctor and father Alban Gervaise in front of his young children in 2022.
“It’s news that we’re trying to prepare for this early release after the murder, barely four years later. It’s news that is really hard to hear, that makes us really go back to our work of mourning for the children and me,” said Christelle Gervaise, the wife of Alban, in an interview with Legend TV.
“It’s true that it’s hard to imagine being able to be in the same city as him. It’s true that it’s quite unbearable for us.”
🇫🇷🔴 Mohamed L. is being released in France after just 4 years in detention, the same man who brutally murdered 40-year-old military doctor and father Alban Gervaise in front of his young children.
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) August 20, 2026
"It’s news that we’re trying to prepare for this early release after the murder,… pic.twitter.com/CdChf3u7A7
Alban was stabbed to death while waiting outside his children’s Catholic school to pick up his two sons, aged 3 and 7, while his 20-month-old daughter was inside his car, in Marseille in May 2022.
Now, the killer will enjoy partial release during evenings and weekends “at liberty.”
The mother, Christelle, is terrified, and the courts so far have refused to listen to her pleas to block Mohamed L. from being in the same city as her and her children.
“I find that it is an additional concern in our lives that we didn’t really need. And I had to announce to my children this early release. There is necessarily a feeling of injustice. How can he leave prison so early after the murder of their father? And then, yes, there is a great concern on the part of my children. That’s for sure.”
This clip is a condensed version of her full interview, but it showcases the horror a French family is facing, both from the murderer and from the French judicial system.
In the interview, Christelle describes the moment of disbelief and grief when she first learned her husband had been stabbed.
“This is not possible, this is not possible, what is happening,” she told herself.
But it did happen, just as it has happened to countless Europeans year after year. Upon arriving on scene, she is greeted with an empty car and no sign of her children.
“And in fact, I’m going to see a first policeman who is going to accompany me to see the principal this time, who reassures me, my children are safe inside the school, all three of them, but I learn from a policeman who comes that my husband is between life and death and has been transferred to the hospital for resuscitation,” she said.
Alban spent 17 days in a coma, where she tried to tell him over and over again that the children were not harmed and that they needed their father.
“And during those 17 days, I talked to him a lot and he … I hope he heard me. I will never know…. I kept repeating several times to Alban that our daughter is fine, that she is okay, that nothing happened at all. Because I imagine that as a father, for him, it was terrible to be attacked like that with a knife. And then to see that he was going to lose his consciousness. He must have felt it and imagined his daughter in danger.”
“I also tell him that he can’t leave, he can’t leave us. Our children are very small, and I need him, the children need him.”
Then, she describes the moment when she had to tell her young children that their father is gone.
“The death announcement to the children is something that I will never forget and I think it’s the hardest moment of my life, really.”
She was forced to sit her children down and let them know what happened to their father.
“So I told them that I had terrible news to tell them, but that unfortunately, their father had died the night before,” said Christelle.
Now, after the terrible ordeal of losing a father and a husband, the French court system is releasing their father’s killer with zero restrictions on him entering the same city as the family. While there is a direct contact ban, there is no guarantee they do not run into Mohamed L. on the street.
Mohamed L. never even faced a trial. Why? He smoked too much cannabis and had a “psychotic break.” The court experts confirmed this, and just like that, authorities deemed he could not be held criminally responsible. No trial and freedom after just four years.
“The fact that he is not imprisoned like a murderer for 15, 20 years in prison. It’s terrible for us. It’s terrible to know the violence Alban has suffered. And in addition, we must accept that after four years, his murderer is outside on evenings and weekends.”
“I am very worried, first of all, about the risk of recidivism. And then I find that for us, it is also a concern, since this person has the right to come to Marseille.”
She said that the authorities involved in the decision say Mohamed L. “must be able to benefit from it, he must have the necessary care.”
The murder already led the children to be forced from their own school. Now, they may have to leave their own city.
“My children have already had to change schools since it happened. They had to change friends. If, in addition, I tell them that we are leaving the city completely because the murderer and their father have the right to go where they want, I think that it is difficult to understand for them. I can’t help but say to myself, I don’t know where he is, I don’t know what he’s doing,” Christelle said.
She is fighting desperately with her lawyer to ensure this killer is no longer allowed in her city.
“The goal is that, is to have a measure that makes it forbidden for him to go to Marseille.”
“It is something that we carry on our shoulders with the children and that we will carry for a very long time.”
After his arrest, while held at Baumettes prison, he attempted to assault a guard, which contributed to his transfer to a psychiatric unit for difficult patients (UMD). This occurred after the murder and presumably, cannabis was not a factor in this assault.
Shockingly, during the trial, one of the psychiatrists openly said that they cannot predict whether the murderer will “relapse.”
“The question of the risk of a relapse. One of the psychiatrists had answered that it was a bit like predicting a plane crash, that it was impossible to predict. Psychiatrists who take care of this type of patient do not have a crystal ball to be sure that there will be no relapse. And this risk is still to be taken into account in the decisions to allow this person to be in the street today,” she said.
In other words, psychiatric experts admit Mohamed L. may murder again, yet, he is being allowed out on evenings and weekends anyway.
Christelle still has questions about how the man was deemed psychologically unfit to stand trial.
She said that after passersby tackled Mohamed L., he screamed: “In the name of Allah, I gave him 30 stab wounds!”
In response, Christelle said: “I always ask myself the question of something that was more premeditated than what you want to make me believe… We are talking about someone who can kill someone in the street. My husband only lasted a few moments. It’s not a fight, it’s a murder.”
“You think he’s going to go to prison. It doesn’t happen as planned. In relation to the trajectory of the murder of my husband,” she added.
“What is complicated, in fact, with this decision, is that we have no idea of the deadline. We don’t know how long he’s going to stay at the hospital in a closed unit. We don’t know how to answer this question. And despite everything, we can still hear that it is difficult to announce to his children that the murder of their father is not condemned to prison, but will have care for an undetermined duration. I also felt deprived of answers to certain questions,” she said.
Regardless, three children are now missing a loving father, with Alban’s wife describing a happy home life before his murder: “We had a life with Alban who was quite classic and very happy. We met in 2009. I was a medical student and he was an intern. We got engaged and then we got married. We had three children. We moved several times because Alban was a military doctor. So we met in Lorraine. Then we went to Paris for his work. Then to Marseille in July 2021. And we really had a very happy family life because Alban was a very loving husband, very loved and a father really present for his children and very invested in his role as a father.”