Suspect in Nantes Cathedral fire confesses to the crime
The Rwandan-born refugee was a diocesan volunteer who was ordered to leave France
One week to the day after the fire in Nantes Cathedral, the African volunteer who was taken into French police custody shortly after the blaze and then released, has now been charged with the crime.
Police arrested the 39-year-old on July 26 after he "admitted during the first interrogation before the investigating judge that he had lit the three fires," said Pierre Sennès, the public prosecutor in Nantes.
Fires were set to the cathedral’s main pipe organ, another small instrument and an electrical panel.
The man, who migrated to France from Rwanda, was indicted for "damage, deterioration or destruction by fire".
Suspicion of foul play
The prosecutor explained that foul play was suspected after receiving "initial results from the forensic laboratory of the Paris Police Prefecture," which noted "the identification of traces of a flammable product".
Video footage also made it possible to "identify an individual in the cathedral during a time slot corresponding to the start of the fire" and this man showed "strong similarities with the person under investigation".
The examining magistrate is expected to order a psychiatric examination. It is still difficult to determine a precise motive for the act of arson.
"We are glossing over elements that no one really controls. There is a certain complexity in this situation," said his lawyer, Mr. Chabert.
Under order to leave the French territory
The suspect has been working for a hotel and also volunteers for the diocese. One of his tasks was to lock the doors of the cathedral in the evening.
The cathedral’s rector, Father Hubert Champenois, had explained last week that this man was a "Rwandan who came to take refuge in France a few years ago".
In an interview with the daily newspaper Ouest-France, Sennès said the refugee had been under order to leave French territory (OQTF) since November 2019.
The man reportedly had exhausted all avenues of appeal, including the refugee appeal board, even after trying to obtain the status of a foreigner in need of medical attention.
He "bitterly regrets what he has done"
The prosecutor also reports that the suspect had sent emails to some members of the diocese and to administrative authorities.
"He reproached various individuals, saying that he was not supported and not given enough help in his administrative procedures," Sennès, the public prosecutor, told Ouest-France.
Despite these efforts, the suspect was ordered to return to Rwanda as soon as possible.
My client "bitterly regrets what was done, saying this has been liberating for him," assured Chabert.
"Today he is consumed with remorse and overwhelmed by the magnitude of events," the lawyer said.
The man could get up to 10 years in prison and face a fine of €150,000.