Man convicted of attempting to attack soldiers stripped of French nationality

On August 5, 2017, this man born in Mauritania crossed a gate at the Eiffel Tower, before pulling out a knife while shouting “Allah Akbar”

A man sentenced to four years in prison for attempting to attack soldiers in Paris in 2017, and who had spent numerous time in psychiatric hospitals, has been stripped of his French nationality, according to a decree published Saturday, August 24 in the Official Journal. “By decree dated August 22, 2024, with the approval of the Council of State, French nationality is deprived”Mamoye D., “born August 7, 1998 in Ouloumbonny (Mauritania)”we can read in this document.

On August 5, 2017, this man, then aged 19, admitted to a psychiatric ward but on leave, had crossed a gate at the Eiffel Tower, before taking out a knife while shouting “Allah Akbar”. Soldiers from Operation Sentinelle had then ordered him to put his knife on the ground and he had complied without putting up any resistance before being arrested.

A few hours later, in police custody, he claimed to be in contact with members of the Islamic State group in the Iraqi-Syrian zone, which was false. And he declared: “If I had killed soldiers, I would have shouted the victory of Daesh against France. (…) I wanted to decapitate them”Already known to the police, he had spent several periods in psychiatric hospitals since his adolescence.

In the first hours of the investigation, an expert had concluded that discernment had been abolished, before two other psychiatric assessments only found an impairment of discernment, paving the way for a trial. He was sentenced in 2019 to four years in prison with socio-judicial monitoring for ten years, including an injunction for treatment.