Brahim Aouissaoui, a 25 -year -old Tunisian is tried on Monday for the assassination of three people in October 2020 in Nice. The latter claims not to remember anything. A neuropsychiatrist speaks of “utility amnesia”.
The Tunisian trial Brahim Aouissaoui, 25, alleged author of the Basilica of Nice on October 29, 2020, opens this Monday, February 10, 2025 before the Paris Special Assize Court. He appears for assassinations and attempted assassinations in relation to a terrorist company and faces life imprisonment. His defense is surprising: he does not remember anything.
“Such a defense cannot hold”
In October 2020, he had almost beheaded Nadine Vincent, injured a 44-year-old Franco-Brazilian mother: Simone Baro Silva with 24 stabs. He also slaughtered the sacristan Vincent Loquès, 55. The three died. But he assures him, he has no memory of these episodes. However, several elements will currently be against this version. First, listening to telephone conversations in prison reveal that “his alleged amnesia was very exaggerated to say the least”. For their part, the lawyers of the civil parties denounce “fictitious amnesia”, and even a “deception”. Finally, the neuropsychiatrist even speaks of utility amnesia, serving a defense system.
Another element plays against him, his medical examination. Indeed, the latter did not reveal any brain injury and psychiatric expertise concluded an absence of alteration or abolition of his discernment at the time of the facts, despite his bullet injuries suffered during the arrest of the police in 2020 . During the investigations, before his trial, the accused kept remembering nothing, until the first name of his parents.
IfJoffrey Devillers, Nadine Vincent’s husband, killed five years earlier that he did not “wait much from the accused”, he denounces “a coward defense”, from the alleged murderer. “Not to assume your actions is strange (…) There is necessarily apprehension, but it is an important process for our psychological aspect”, he assures in the columns of here azure .
The lawyer for Nadine Vincent’s husband, Sousssi believes that “such a defense cannot hold, he even says he does not remember his childhood. The report of the neuropsychiatrist is final. The first day can really be decisive . An opinion shared by the French Association of Victims of Terrorism (AFVT).
The accused says “not to know the name of his lawyer”
This Monday, January 10, BrahimAaouissaoui appeared “calm in the accused box”, reveals Here azure. After having declined his identity “in a fluette”, he replied “not to know the name of his lawyer, which he showed with a sign of the hand,” continues the local media. For his part, his lawyer Martin Méchin announced that he was “certainly asking for new expertise” from Brahim Aouissaoui. “I am unable to tell you if my client understands the issues of the trial,” he said at Azur here.
“After more than four years of detention for total isolation, the question that will arise at the opening of the hearing will be that of its current mental health, of its ability to understand the charges that weigh against it, And therefore his ability to be able to defend himself as any accused has the right to do so, “he also said. Lhe verdict is expected to be returned on February 26.