Emmanuel Abayisenga, 41, a volunteer from the diocese from Rwanda who admitted being the cause of the fire in Nantes Cathedral in July 2020, will be tried for these facts on March 29, 2023.
During a relay hearing on Wednesday, the Nantes Criminal Court also ordered a psychiatric expertise to assess the terms of this appearance (presence of care or facilities for the day of the hearing).
Indicted for the assassination of a priest in Vendée in August 2021
The request of his lawyer, Me Quentin Chabert, for a new psychiatric expertise to assess his discernment at the time of the cathedral fire, was however not accepted by the court. A first expert report rendered on March 3, 2021 concluded that his discernment had been altered and not abolished during the facts, but also that Emmanuel Abayisenga presented no danger to public order or the safety of persons.
“This expertise is worth nothing when we know that in August 2021, he was committing criminal acts”, commented his lawyer, who had himself obtained his release from this expertise.
Emmanuel Abayisenga, who attended this hearing dressed in a red jacket, in a visibly fragile state of health, is actually in pre-trial detention in connection with another criminal case. He was indicted on October 28 for the assassination on the night of August 8 to 9, 2021 of Father Olivier Maire, 60. This father superior of the congregation of Montfortian missionaries of Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre (Vendée) had welcomed him after his release from prison.
Restoration work valued at 24 million euros
The cathedral fire, which occurred on July 18, 2020, 15 months after that of Notre-Dame de Paris, had notably destroyed the great organ and a painting by Hippolyte Flandrin from the 19th century. The suspicions of the investigators had quickly focused on this Rwandan volunteer responsible for closing the cathedral the day before the fire.
According to the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs (DRAC), whose representatives were present at the hearing, the lead depollution work on Nantes Cathedral, the cost of which amounts to 3.2 million euros, will end on February 10.
Restoration work, valued at 24 million euros (not counting that of the great organ), will begin immediately after. They will be completed between 2026 and 2028 but the building should partially reopen to the public in 2024.