"Xenophobic motivation". For the German authorities, the assassination of nine people of foreign origins, Wednesday, February 19, in an attack aimed at hookah bars in the city of Hanau, in the center of the country, is mainly linked to this "poison". The main suspect, found dead at his home after the shooting, left behind a 23-page manifesto combining xenophobic calls for murder and paranoid ranting.

The murderous act of a "mad man"?

But on the political level, the attack gave rise to a real battle. While German Chancellor Angela Merkel denounces the "poison" of racism, the far-right German party AfD, accused of normalizing hate speech towards foreigners, rejects the ideological nature of the killing. According to its co-director, Joerg Meuthen, the shooting is "neither on the left nor on the right" but the act of a "crazy man".

These comments are based on the operating mode of the alleged killer. In his manifesto, he stated in particular that he had been observed since childhood by a "secret organization" which could "read his mind". The 43-year-old also called on the American people to rise up against an "invisible secret society" in an English video posted on YouTube, which has now been deleted.

However, these elements are not enough to explain the reason for the attack, said Cynthia Miller-Idriss, sociologist. Interviewed on France 24, this specialist in questions of radicalization believes that psychological disorders can promote the act, but are not the cause: "People with mental health problems may be more sensitive to extremist rhetoric This factor, like a situation of economic precariousness or a trauma of childhood, can amplify the feeling of threat and the need for actions perceived as "heroic" in response. But it is essential to separate this vulnerability well psychological of the xenophobic extermination plan clearly put in place by the killer. "

A vision challenged by the psychiatrist and criminologist Jean Pierre Bouchard, who considers that at this stage the track of mental illness should not be ruled out: "The delusion of persecution is a very well-known mechanism. Paranoid people persuaded that they are blamed for it wants, as seems to be the case with the killer of Hanau, can take action to take revenge in a symbolic or real way. This type of people is totally capable of premeditating a violent action. The mentally ill are fed, kneaded by what surrounds them therefore an asserted political ideology does not discredit the track of the disease, in particular when it is delusional ".

A "lone wolf"?

While Germany had strengthened, in recent months, its legislative and security system to monitor hate content on the Web, the attack on Hanau again highlights the difficulty of countering these apparently acting terrorists. Nicknamed "the lone wolves", they go under surveillance radars and sometimes have no links with networks. But can this modus operandi correspond to a case of mental illness?

"Most of the time, the mentally ill who take the act do it alone, it is a classic scheme" explains Jean Pierre Bouchard. "The fact that the suspect has never had justice at the age of 43 and that he does not seem to have a particular appetite for violence are also elements which raise questions."

A debate very present in France

In France, several recent cases have sparked debates of this type. The knife attack at the Paris police headquarters on October 3, 2019 was first treated as a terrorist case. But the prosecution has given up. It is ultimately the "mystical and suicidal delirium" of the official who was selected to explain his acting out. For the attack on the Bayonne mosque on October 28, 2019, the ideological motivation will be ruled out due to the at least partial impairment of the suspect's discernment.

The psychological question cannot therefore be excluded from the outset in terrorist cases. It must nevertheless be handled with caution according to Nathalie Goulet, centrist senator who chaired the commission of inquiry on the fight against jihadism: "Society tends to consider that terrorists are unbalanced to avoid confronting the real problems But the psychological aspect can only be retained if there is a set of concordant beams collected during the neighborhood survey, the analysis of personal data etc. It is then the work of the psychiatric experts of establish whether the attacker was fully aware of his act. "

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