French prosecutors seek murder charge for school stabbing suspect
French prosecutors on Thursday, June 12, requested that a 14-year-old school pupil detained for allegedl y stabbing to death a teaching assistant in eastern France be charged with murder and placed in pre-trial detention. The secondary school pupil was arrested on Tuesday after allegedly killing a 31-year-old school monitor with a knife during a bag search in the eastern town of Nogent, in an attack that caused widespread shock in France.
On Thursday, prosecutors requested he be charged with "murder of a person carrying out a public service mission" and "intentional violence" against a police officer injured during the arrest. The prosecutor's office also requested that the pupil be placed in pre-trial detention, Dijon prosecutor Olivier Caracotch said in a statement.
As a minor, the suspect faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison instead of life imprisonment. The prosecutors made the announcement as classes resumed at the Françoise Dolto school struck by the tragedy.
Regional prosecutors told reporters on Wednesday that the teenager acknowledged "being the perpetrator" of the deadly stabbing. He had wanted to attack "any" adult monitor after being reprimanded for kissing his girlfriend, they said.
He did not appear to suffer from any "mental disorder" but appeared "detached" and expressed "no regret" for killing one of the school's monitors, all of whom were women, prosecutors said.
A moment of silence was held at midday in schools across France in memory of the victim.
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