Two anti-terrorism investigating judges ordered on Tuesday that the author of a fatal knife attack in Romans-sur-Isère (Drôme) be tried by the Special Assize Court for assassinations and attempted assassinations in relation to a company terrorist, said a source close to the matter.
The attacker, Abdallah Osman Ahmed, killed two men and injured five other people on April 4, 2020.
Impaired discernment
The psychological state of Abdallah Osman Ahmed was at the heart of the investigations carried out at the anti-terrorism unit of the Paris court.
Two of the three psychiatric assessments carried out during the procedure concluded that the discernment of this Sudanese refugee currently aged 37 had been impaired.
With an impairment of discernment, the attacker no longer risks life imprisonment, but 30 years of criminal imprisonment.
The second expertise, dated November 7, 2022 and consulted by AFP, had on the contrary established the “abolition” of his discernment, because he “presented, for weeks before the facts, a psychiatric picture associating delusional symptoms of persecution (auditory hallucinations), massive anxiety, a depressive feeling (sadness, pessimism, suicidal thoughts, withdrawal at home, weight loss).”
“If the mental disorder qualified by the experts as an acute paranoid hallucinatory psychotic attack at the time of the events is not contested by any of the expert opinions, it has nevertheless not been proven that it was the only element at the origin of the triggering of the act", note the two investigating judges in their indictment order before the Special Assize Court, signed Tuesday and consulted by AFP.
“This disorder associated with the uprooting and isolation from which Abdallah Osman Ahmed suffered, accentuated by the start of the first health confinement, were among the triggers of the journey,” they add.
“Unbelievable violence”
The two magistrates underline “the great determination of the author”, “the incredible violence of the scenes of aggression”, “the modus operandi”, as well as “the
choice
of some of his victims” and “a form of rationality” in the attack.
According to them, “this action finds its justification in an allegiance and a claim linked to Islamic jihad, although no proven contact of the author with members of this organization has been found and that his act has not been claimed as such.”
The day before the events, the attacker “posted writings linked to the ideology of radical Islam and thus justified the act he was preparing to commit”, it is written in the order.
Propaganda files and images linked to jihadist ideology were found on his mobile phone.
During the interrogations, the Sudanese indicated that he had no memory of what happened.
He spoke of having acted in response to “voices which ordered him to deliver himself”.
A law graduate and farmer, he left his country for economic reasons and obtained refugee status in France on June 29, 2017. His wife remained in Sudan.
He was not known to belong to a terrorist organization.
And, note the investigating judges, Abdallah Osman Ahmed has “always lived according to the
precepts of Islam
without ever adopting an Islamist approach”.
But “his way of life was profoundly disrupted by immigration and confinement reinforced his feeling of isolation in contrast to the environment in which he had grown up and evolved before his arrival in Europe”.
Uprooting, loneliness, the absence of spirituality are “elements (which) could have constituted the breeding ground on which the Islamic terrorist motive to which Abdallah Osman Ahmed adhered was attached,” underline the two anti-terrorism investigating judges.
Abdallah Osman Ahmed's lawyers did not immediately react.
An act committed “with a blank stare”
On the morning of April 4, 2020, during confinement, Abdallah Osman Ahmed stabbed Thierry N., a 54-year-old butcher's customer, and Julien V., a 43-year-old trader.
He also injured five people during his deadly journey through the city center.
According to witnesses to the attack, he had acted without uttering "the slightest word", "with a blank stare", and had "looked hypnotized" and "possessed", remaining "very calm", it is reported in the last second opinion, signed on June 20, 2023.