He was remanded in custody on Saturday evening, two days after causing panic in downtown Le Havre. The man who had held six people hostage two days earlier in a bank branch in the port city, before surrendering, was indicted "for attempted extortion with weapon" and "forcible confinement", announced on Saturday the public prosecutor, François Gosselin.
Presented to a judge, "the defendant was indicted for the cited offenses, and placed in pre-trial detention," said the prosecutor of Le Havre on Saturday evening.
The prosecution had requested the indictment of the author of the hostage-taking "for attempted extortion with weapon, forcible confinement and attempt, willful violence and possession of explosive substances, as well as his placement in pre-trial detention", had previously indicated the magistrate.
"Confused explanations"
Aged 34 and known for a criminal and psychiatric record, the man surrendered late Thursday evening, after patient negotiations with the Raid men, who arrived shortly after 7 p.m. "Originally from Le Havre and living there, he provides confused explanations as to his motivations, citing family difficulties or the fate of Palestinian children," said François Gosselin.
The hostage taker, who took refuge Thursday at 4:45 p.m. in an agency of Bred in the center of Le Havre, was equipped with a handgun "which turns out to be an alarm pistol", indicated the prosecutor. "The homemade device he presented as being a bomb consisted of two bottles of methylated spirits assembled with fireworks firecrackers," he added.
Hostage-taking in a bank in 2013
"None of the six people held hostage was subjected to physical violence," said the prosecutor, adding that they had been taken care of by an association to help victims.
According to the prosecutor, the respondent is "known to the courts for having been convicted four times between 2006 and 2016, in particular for theft, threats, violence, carrying a weapon and forcible confinement". He was released "at the end of his last incarceration in May 2018" and "his state of health was considered compatible with the continuation of the procedure", added François Gosselin.
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In 2013, the same man, carrying a handgun and a tear gas canister, had taken four people hostage for more than two hours in a CIC bank in Paris before surrendering to the police. He then demanded social housing for himself and his son.
