About a third of persons identified as radicalised in France show symptoms of psychological disorders, French Home Affairs Minister Gérard Collomb said on Tuesday. Collomb said on the RMC/BFMTV radio and television channel that in the Fichier des signalements pour la prévention et la radicalization (FSPRT, France’s terrorism monitoring database), “we consider that about one-third (of the persons listed) present psychological disorders”.
Just under 17,400 persons are listed on the FSPRT, created in 2015, according to a French Senate report issued in the spring of 2017.
Following an attack on August 14 in which a man drove his car into a pizza restaurant, killing one person and injuring 12 others, Collomb had said he aimed to mobilize psychiatric hospitals and psychiatrists “to identify the profiles of people who can take action”.
“It’s clear that medical secret is something sacred, but, at the same time, a way must be found to make sure that certain individuals who, in fact, suffer from severe disorders, do not commit attacks,” the minister stressed on Tuesday.
He cited the example of a man who drove his truck into two bus shelters in Marseilles, killing one person and injuring another. “He came from a psychiatric clinic; he had a prison record and he kills someone. You have to think of that type of prism,” said the minister. “It’s not terrorism (…) but there’s imitation”.
The Brussels Times
