Exactly one year ago, on October 13, 2023, in a high school in Arras, French teacher Dominique Bernard, 57, was murdered during an attack perpetrated by one of his former students, Mohammed Mogouchkov, a young Russian. originally from Ingushetia. Over the past year, the investigation has allowed us to learn more about his motivations because, a rare occurrence in this type of case, the assailant was able to be arrested alive and indicted for assassination in connection with a terrorist enterprise.
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In pre-trial detention for almost a year, Mohammed Mogushkov began writing long poems from his cell. According to experts who have been able to read his texts, the young man, now 21 years old, claims “ a violent challenge to republican values “.
“ Marianne, she is beautiful! But how is it sacred? “, he wonders before continuing: “ I have light on every level, and I do not speak of your lights, writers, whose ink has darkened the hearts of Dominique Bernard “. Mohammed Mogouchkov repeated that he acted alone, developing a plan “ one to three weeks » before taking action and following a command that would have come to him from “ Allah “.
To the judges who questioned him, Mohammed Mogouchkov assured that he had targeted his former teacher for the values he embodied: “ Passion, love, attachment to the system in general of the Republic, democracy, human rights. “The young man would today be in a claim” self-justified and theorized about one’s actions », Analyzes a psychologist. According to the specialist, the author of the attack is marked “ by a probable identity split “, between ” family repositories », notably embodied by his father registered S for Islamist radicalization – expelled from France in 2018 – and his schooling in France. And although he could benefit from psychological monitoring “, its positioning makes it ” still very inaccessible “.
Dominique Bernard had noticed the “ dangerous nature » of the student
In recent months, investigators have also discovered that the recording in which the assassin pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group had been sent to two Telegram accounts administered by the organization. Two other suspects, the attacker’s little brother, 17, and his cousin, 16, are also still indicted. The first is imprisoned, the second is placed under judicial supervision.
In an interview given to World Saturday October 12, Isabelle Bernard, the widow of Dominique Bernard, explains that the profile of the attacker worried the professor. “ When Mohammed Mogouchkov was a middle school student and Dominique had him in class, the management team did everything to point out the dangerous character of this boy “, she says. Her husband had confided to her that, faced with this student, “ (I) can’t say everything (I) want, (I) have to be careful “. An English teacher herself, Isabelle Bernard believes that “ everyone did their job “, that we ” cannot blame National Education for anything » and that « the police knew that he [Mogouchkov] intended to act but did not know when “.
During the attack on October 13, 2023, Mohammed Mogouchkov stabbed Dominique Bernard to death in the neck and shoulder. A PE teacher, while trying to intervene, was seriously injured in the face, as were two employees of the Gambetta high school. Some of these events were filmed by students remotely. A few minutes later, the police arrived on the scene and neutralized the terrorist using an electric pulse gun.