The debate on criminal irresponsibility arose through a quarrel between experts, during the hearing of the Lyon investigation chamber, Friday February 11, relating to the case of Sultan Mohamed Niazi, 36, author named following the bloody knife attack, perpetrated on August 31, 2019 at the Laurent-Bonnevay metro station, in Villeurbanne (Lyon metropolis). While factually imputing the assassination and thirteen attempted murders to him, the Advocate General, Olivier Nagabbo, requested the hospitalization under duress of the accused, acknowledging his criminal irresponsibility, caused by the abolition of his discernment. The decision will be made on March 29.
Three colleges of experts concluded on the total abolition of the discernment of this Afghan, who killed a young traveler and seriously injured thirteen people, by blindly striking with a kitchen knife and a barbecue fork, and shouting « Allahou akbar ! ». Voice in the head, poison stings, visual hallucination, false bodily sensations, all clinical signs of schizophrenia “with mystical connotations” were brought together in the head of the young Afghan, according to three psychiatrists summoned to the hearing. Spotted in five European countries between 2009 and 2017, hosted near Lyon under the subsidiary protection of the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (Ofpra), Sultan Niazi dragged his illness in his planetary wandering, before a crisis broke out, for some crazy reason.
“His behavior is unpredictable and dangerous”, insisted Doctor Jean Canterino, excluding any possibility of simulation. Faced with victims awaiting explanations – numerous and sometimes standing in the small courtroom of the Lyon Court of Appeal – the doctor explained that a schizophrenic might implement an apparently very coherent organization. For example, by carrying and hiding weapons under a coat, as was the case in Villeurbanne. “A passer-by can suddenly become the figure of the devil that he must eliminate in his mind out of reality”said the doctor.
“I have rarely seen such a level of danger”
This process was arguably fatal to 19-year-old Timothy Bonnet, who was fatally punched in the back on his way to a music concert. “I saw his face differently”said Sultan Niazi, in his rare rambling remarks, translated from Pashtun.
“I have rarely seen such a level of danger”, added doctor Thierry Balais. While sharing the clinical picture of a “acute schizophrenic disorder”Dr. Natalie Giloux is the only practitioner to have mentioned the simple “impairment of discernment”due to the author’s consumption of cannabis. “He knows drugs are dangerous. If addiction is involved in the emergence of his disease, it must entail a small responsibility., estimated the psychiatrist, stationed at the Vinatier hospital, in Lyon, worried regarding the rise of toxic substances in the causes of aggression. “Taking toxins promotes the passage to the act. We need patients to be confronted with the law. I give you my testimony as a doctor”said Dr. Giloux, explaining that the sanction might promote therapeutic progress.
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