"I wanted the police to arrest me": Rayen had kidnapped a justice official in Meaux

Rayen B. does not refuse any dialogue.

Even if this 20-year-old Meldois is psychically handicapped up to 80%, he answers all the questions of the president of the hearing.

Admittedly, his words are sometimes disjointed, but he tries to explain himself.

Since Tuesday, Rayen B. appears before the Assize Court of Seine-et-Marne, in Melun, for kidnapping and death threats.

He is on trial for having, on January 6, 2020, in Meaux, sequestered in his office the head of the open environment educational unit of the Judicial Protection of Youth.

And this, under the threat of a knife.

Facts he recognizes.

“I was in my bubble… I was stressed… sometimes I took my medications, sometimes I didn't take them,” he explained. Rayen B. is treated with Dépakine, to decrease his impulsiveness. “I had this knife to protect myself. I had had an altercation with another person ”. Rayen B. does not lie… even if he reconsiders his statements, made in police custody or during the investigation. In court, he assured that, this January 6, 2020, he did not want to kill anyone. “I wanted to die. I was fed up with life, didn't work, didn't have friends. "

At the beginning of his interrogation, Rayen B. was having difficulty managing his impulsiveness.

This is why his lawyer Me Jean-Christophe Ramadier intervened firmly: “To judge you, you have to understand you.

If you say it loudly with a big voice, it won't work ”.

The idea was put forward in court: his aggressiveness would allow him to compensate for his handicap which he does not accept.

President Charlotte Bilger addressed - a sensitive subject for the accused - his supposed radicalization and his admiration of jihadists.

Returning to the delusional remarks of Rayen B. who wanted to "die as a martyr", the magistrate referred to a "caricature of a terrorist".

The accused assured him: it was provocations.

"It was more a matter of psychiatry than of anti-terrorism"

On the day of the assault, Rayen B. - who was receiving follow-up from the Judicial Youth Protection - was in interview with a psychologist. He started to say weird things, before pulling out a knife. "I'm sorry, something's going to happen," he told her, smiling, turning the knife in his hands. Enough to panic the psychologist, gone to seek help.

Seeing Rayen B. in the hallway, her knife in her hand, the manager tried to establish a dialogue. President Charlotte Bilger read at the hearing the hearing of the head of service who - for some unknown reason - does not attend the trial. Rayen B. and the manager found themselves alone in his office. The young man, his knife still in his hand, closed the door, before blocking it with his foot, sitting on a chair. He wanted the police to be called. In the process, police officers were stationed in number rue de la Crèche, at the foot of the building and in the service.

An official from the Anti-Crime Squad started a dialogue with Rayen B. No dispute between them: the two men were thus able to "speak". To make him drop his knife, the policeman showed him his electric pulse pistol. Seeing that Rayen B. was getting angry, he aimed his gun at the ground. Before inquiring about his intentions. “He had a mischievous look. I thought it could switch at any time to one side or the other, ”said the policeman, precise in his explanations, without ever adding.

The official - who was "not afraid at the time" - described the fear of his colleagues. Rayen B. - already convicted of apologizing for terrorism - was known to make strange remarks about the Islamic State: "We thought he wanted to die by our hand". At the end of the dialogue, Rayen B. put the knife on the ground. "I wanted the police to arrest me", assured Rayen B. For Me Jean-Christophe Ramadier, "it is more psychiatry than anti-terrorism".

The non-apparent intellectual disability of the accused - automatically hospitalized in psychiatry for 16 days in 2018 - is at the heart of the debates.

President Charlotte Bilger questioned psychiatrists and psychologists on the existence of a possible link between intellectual disability and impaired judgment.

Conclusion: no consensus between those who assessed Rayen B. according to his criminal and medical background and those who met him in the context of this case.

Requisitions, pleadings and verdict are expected this Thursday.