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France: Killer of Jewish DJ found insane
Court rules man who knifed Jew to death in 2003 is paranoid schizophrenic, unfit to stand trial
A French court ruled Tuesday that the murderer of Sebastien Selam, a French Jew knifed to death six years ago in Paris, is unfit for trial due to mental instability.
The judge rejected the family's appeal of a similar verdict handed down in 2006, which stated that the defendant, Adel Amastaibou, suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and is unable to control his actions.
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Amastaibou, a 26-year-old French Muslim, stabbed Selam to death with a knife and fork in the basement of an apartment building they shared in November of 2003. He was arrested and discovered to be under the influence of marijuana.
When interrogated Amastaibou said he had been "under a spell" and that he was "pleased by the death of that f-ing Jew".
Selam was a 22-year old DJ when he died. His family demanded that the murder be labeled a crime of anti-Semitism, but in a hearing that took place last month Amastaibou rejected this claim.
"I heard voices and I thought I was dead. In order to survive I had to kill my best friend. I was not in control. This has nothing to do with religion. Sebastien was a good friend of mine," he told the court.
The court is now faced with a decision on the level of Amastaibou's threat to society.
Before killing Selam he had also attacked his mother, his aunt, and his uncle, and evaded treatments to which he had committed himself.
