Arras Stabbing Suspect Sent to Special Assizes Court

The primary suspect in the October 13, 2023, fatal stabbing of teacher Dominique Bernard in Arras, France, has been ordered to stand trial before a specially composed assizes court. Investigating magistrates reached this conclusion following a three-year investigation that they characterized as a meticulous preparation aimed at manifesting hatred toward the Western way of life and the school system.

Mohammed Mogouchkov, a 23-year-old Russian national who was flagged for Islamist radicalization, launched the attack outside the Gambetta-Carnot school. Armed with knives, he killed the 57-year-old French teacher and injured three other individuals, including another teacher and two school agents who attempted to intervene during the ten-minute rampage.

While the magistrates decided to send the main suspect to trial for offenses including murder and attempted murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise, they ruled that there was insufficient evidence to charge his younger brother and his cousin. Attorneys for the brother, who was a minor at the time of the events and spent more than two years in solitary confinement, welcomed the decision as a massive relief and noted that he was merely a younger brother rather than an accomplice.

However, the national anti-terrorism prosecutor's office disagreed with the dismissal of charges against the brother and cousin and promptly appealed the decision. The case will now move to the investigation chamber to determine whether Mogouchkov will face trial alone.

Throughout the lengthy judicial investigation, Mogouchkov has expressed no remorse for his actions. During his final interrogations, he maintained that he intentionally targeted the teacher to demonstrate that schools act as factories for apostasy, remarking that he could have targeted a politician or someone more notoriously criminal, but chose a teacher deliberately.

In a recorded telephone conversation with his father from May 2025, the suspect showed a complete lack of empathy when discussing the victim's family, stating that he regretted the victim was in a state of supreme ingratitude. Investigators and psychologists underscored his unwavering and exalted justification of the murder throughout the proceedings.

The fatal attack occurred three years after the assassination of Samuel Paty, leaving a profound impact on France's national education system. Law enforcement officials had managed to subdue the assailant at the scene using a taser shortly after the violence unfolded.