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When Riad Bouchaker was interviewed by Gardaí at Mountjoy station 12 hours into his detention on the 20th of December 2023, he began his remarks with, “The kids are fine.”
When asked to tell them about “the social welfare letter”, he said, “The letter has to do with disability allowance. I applied for it I was really upset.”
“For one year and three months, if only I could work, I would not seek to get this payment. I’m sick, that’s why I sought the disability allowance. He said his brother had read the letter to him and that he had torn it up after learning that his application was denied.
Asked about the knife that was found at the scene, he said that he liked it and that he wanted to bring it back to Algeria with him.
“I like the knife, and I wanted to take it to Algeria. It was sealed, it was well packaged, and I wanted to take it with me to Algeria.”
“I had it in the hotel in my accommodation. I came out, and I met my brother, and he explained to me, and I was mad, and I tore it off.”
Asked where he went then, he said, “I went straight to get the knife. The knife was brand new, and I wanted to take it with me back home. Something happened to my mind, and I was afraid something bad would happen.”
“I don’t know what happened- Praise be to God, things did not get any worse.”
When the interviewing Detective Garda described the contents of the letter from the Department of Social Protection, saying that although Bouchaker had described it as a letter about “disability allowance”, it was in fact about “supplementary welfare allowance”.
Asked where he went after returning to his room at the De Paul hostel on Little Britian Street, he said, “I was very distressed, so I went, and I grabbed my suitcase that has my passport, and the knife was there as well. I’m very grateful that the children did not pass, and I’m very grateful to god for that.”
Gardaí asked, When you grabbed the suitcase and the knife, where did you go then?
“I went to that place where people pray,” and he didn’t know what that specific mosque was called.
His French-Arabic interpreter said, “He doesn’t recall the name of the place exactly. He said he angrily went and gave the suitcase to someone and said just keep the passport for me.”
Garda: “Riad, why did you bring your bag to the place where you pray?”
“I went to the praying place where there is a bit on a hill, and you could see the thing I was not in a healthy state, mental state. The suitcase had an Algerian passport and an Irish passport, even my clothes.”
“I have an injury in my hand, and I have a shoulder injury. I can’t work. I didn’t counterfeit anything to get the allowance. If they only helped me, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“Everything is closed down into my face”
Garda, “Riad, you spoke earlier in this interview about going to pray?”
“I did not go to pray, I just went to give the suitcase.”
“Have you been there before, Riad?”
I rarely go there. That’s exactly it, most importantly again, nobody died.”
“I go to other mosques, but that place, particularly, I’ve never been inside.”
Carol Doherty BL, prosecuting, read from a Memorandum of Interview in which he was asked, “When you leave the suitcase at the mosque, do you know you’re going to hurt people?”
He answered that he was glad there were no fatalities, “I am a sick person. Whoever watches the incident will know.”
“For 19 years I’ve been sick, the Social Welfare and disability allowance wouldn’t give me anything”.
“I feel that these are my children. I didn’t want to hurt them. The incident was the outcome of the suffering I had for many years. I had the knife in my trousers. I had a mobile phone on me and a laptop as well.”
Garda: “Why did you move all your possessions from the hostel to the mosque?”
“I felt like Ireland doesn’t want me.”
“I did not have a pence to spend on something to eat. I was not conscious of what I was doing. I was wandering.”
When asked if he had no “intended destination”, he said he used to live “in a hostel there before”.
“I found no one to show mercy to me and the people would not guide me to the right process to get the correct decision to get the grant.”
Garda, “I think you know exactly where you were going.”
Buchaker, “I was walking aimlessly,”
Asked why he was going to Parnell Square, he said, I never had intentions to hurt anyone.”
“I’ve been here 34 years. Even if a police officer punches you in the face, you just leave.”
“I am in my country, and I trust the justice system in my country.”
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