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CRIME

Murder accused strips in front of court

A Frenchman accused of the 2008 murder of a Swedish student on Friday delayed the resumption of his trial by taking off all his clothes.

Published: 7 September 2012 14:52 CEST

"The accused is naked," the gendarme responsible for bringing Bernard Cholet, 55, into court was obliged to tell judge Xavière Simeoni following a 90-minute delay in the start of proceedings.

"Can't you put him in a straitjacket," the exasperated judge snapped before warning: "He can appear naked if he wants and he will be charged with exposing himself."

The judge's firm tone had the desired effect. Cholet, who was in a holding cell, duly got dressed and took his place in the dock.

The accused was taken sick on the opening day of the trial and has since been staying in hospital, where he claims not to have been fed properly. Friday's protest followed a request for him to be returned to prison.

Cholet, who has previous convictions for rape and armed robbery, is accused of kidnapping and killing Susanna Zetterberg, a 19-year-old student from Stockholm, after picking her up in his unlicensed taxi outside a Paris nightclub in April 2008.

He denies the charge and claims police fabricated evidence used to indict him.

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CRIME

French teen dies from heart failure after knife attack near school

A 14-year-old girl has died of a heart attack in eastern France after her school locked down to protect itself from a knife attacker who lightly wounded two other girls, an official said on Friday.

Published: 20 April 2024 08:58 CEST
French teen dies from heart failure after knife attack near school

The teenager “was rescued by teachers who were very fast to call the fire department. She died at the end of the afternoon,” education official Olivier Faron said.

The girl’s middle school in the village of Souffelweyersheim closed its doors on Thursday afternoon after a man stabbed two other girls aged 7 and 11 outside a nearby primary facility.

“Sadly this pupil underwent an episode of very high stress that led to a heart attack,” Faron said.

A mother outside the middle school on Friday morning said her son in first year of secondary had also been scared during the lockdown the previous day.

“Whereas in the primary school they made it more like a game, perhaps here it was a little too direct,” Deborah Wendling said.

“He thought there was an armed person in the school. They could hear doors slamming, but in fact it was just other classrooms locking down.”

Faron defended the teachers.

READ ALSO: Schoolgirl threatens teacher with knife as tensions rise in French schools

“There is no perfect solution,” he said.

But “we will analyse in depth what happened. If there are lessons to be taken from this, we will take them.”

The two girls hurt in the attack were discharged from hospital on Thursday evening with only light wounds.

Police have arrested the 30-year-old assailant, and a probe has been opened into “attempted murder of minors”, the prosecutor’s office said.

It was not immediately clear what had motivated him, but it did not appear to be “a terrorist act”, it said.

He was “psychiatrically fragile” and appeared to have stopped his medication.

The incident follows a series of attacks on schoolchildren by their peers, in particularly the fatal beating earlier this month of Shemseddine, 15, outside Paris.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on Thursday announced measures to crack down on teenage violence in and around schools.

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