On December 27 at around 10 pm, a man entered a Muslim prayer room near the Collège in Domène, where he threw the contents of several cupboards and shelves on the floor, tore out a radiator and wrote words on a paper tablecloth accusing the imam of indoctrinating the faithful and making them become terrorists. When he was stopped by a worshipper and a person in charge of the place, he fled and shouted incoherent words.
The accused was arraigned on December 31 in immediate presentment before the Grenoble Criminal Court and had asked for time to prepare his defence as a new psychiatric report had been ordered. Pending the new hearing, he was detained in Grenoble-Varces prison.
On Wednesday, February 9, he appeared in criminal court again as a prisoner to stand trial for “damaging or destroying two buildings used for religion” as a recidivist. He was also charged with stealing – also as a recidivist – the car in which he slept and drove around.
“He is someone who is looking for himself a bit. He was Catholic before he met a Muslim woman and converted to Islam. He is questioning his religion, but there is no Islamophobic connotation in his actions,” stressed his lawyer Fanny Marion.(…) La Dépêche