Metro attacker on trial in Paris
A court has to decide today if a homeless man who pushed an architect under a train at La Défense was of sound mind
A 37-YEAR-OLD homeless man is in court today having admitted pushing a man under the wheels of the metro at La Défense.
The victim, Renaud Roussillon, an architect, survived but had to have a leg amputated.
He has said he thought he was targeted because, with his briefcase and blazer, he looked like a typical professional.
“We didn’t even exchange a word or a glance, so it must just have been that he couldn’t stand the sight of me,” Mr Roussillon told France Info.
During the trial, at the cour d’assizes court for the Hauts-de-Seine, in Nanterre, he declined to look at images recorded by the RATP that showed him being thrown under the train at the Grande Arche station.
The attacker, Ahmed Zobir, claimed he had “heard insults” and was “a feeling a bit hot-headed”.
He said: “I lost control and pushed him with both hands, carried away by annoyance and anger. I’d like to apologise.”
However, two mental health experts have given evidence that Zobir was not of sound mind when he carried out the act, and therefore not legally responsible.
The court is expected to come to a verdict tonight.
Photo credits: Photo:Matt Biddulph
