The attacker of theater director Alain Françon, whose throat he had almost slit in March 2021, was sentenced to 25 years in prison by the Hérault Assize Court on Wednesday.
The sentence imposed on Mohamed Kamel, 33, tried since Monday for "
attempted murder
", was accompanied by a "
two-thirds security period
" and a five-year socio-judicial follow-up, with obligation of care .
This sentence is less than the life imprisonment he faced and the 30 years in prison demanded by the Advocate General on Tuesday.
“
This is not the maximum sentence, because perhaps you could pull yourself together and try to readjust
,” explained the president of the court after a three-hour deliberation, pointing out that childhood difficulty of the accused had been accepted as a mitigating circumstance.
Read alsoDuring the Alain Françon trial “remade the film” of the attack which almost cost him his life
On the other hand, said the magistrate, and although a psychiatric expert had put forward the hypothesis, the court did not consider that Mohamed Kamel presented a "
mental disorder that hampered the control of his actions
", which could have reduce the severity of the sentence.
This part of the verdict made Mr. Kamel jump, who began to insult the judge.
This immediately had him expelled from the room.
The attacker denies having wanted to commit murder
Alain Françon, 77, came on Tuesday to tell "
the totally meaningless act
" of which he was the victim, on March 17, 2021, while he was walking in the historic center of Montpellier and which he had received from behind a stab in the throat.
The use of surveillance cameras led to the arrest two weeks later of Mohamed Kamel.
A few minutes before the attack, he had been turned away from the Hérault prefecture, located close by, for lack of an appointment.
During his police custody and since the opening of the trial, this man described as "
poor
" intellectually by the experts had admittedly admitted having struck the director, but repeated that he "
did not want to kill him
".
The injury inflicted on Alain Françon would however have been fatal if he had not been quickly rescued by passers-by, which from a legal point of view makes this attack an attempted murder, underlined the magistrate.
Mohamed Kamel has 10 days to appeal his sentence.