MONTPELLIER, France (AP) — A Frenchman was convicted for trying to run over a pedestrian he mistook for Osama bin Laden.
The 35-year-old, identified as a struggling artist named Pierre, was sentenced Tuesday by a court in this southern France city to a three-month suspended prison term and ordered to pay euro500 ($615) to the victim, who was unharmed.
The man’s lawyer, David Mendel, said his client was traumatized by last week’s terror attacks in Madrid and was temporarily the “victim of a hallucination,” while driving Monday through Montpellier’s historic center.
The victim, a man in his 30s, was able to run from the oncoming car, which crashed along the side of a street.
“It wasn’t bin Laden,” Mendel said. “If it was, we would have won US$5 million.”