New lawyer retracts psych report request

A new lawyer has stepped into the case involving a 51-year-old man accused of trying to kidnap the child of a wealthy family in Outremont and demanded that his client’s psychiatric evaluation be halted.

Chiheb Battikh faces 10 charges in the case, involving an attempt to kidnap a 3-year-old boy in a park in Outremont Dec. 19.

The person who tried to abduct the child managed to run with the toddler for several metres before people in the park, including the boy’s father, wrestled the man to the ground and held him there for police.

When Battikh first appeared in court, on Dec. 20, the lawyer representing him at the time, Denise Fernet, asked that he be evaluated by a psychiatrist to determine if he could be found criminally responsible of the accusations he faces.

“He is not well. He is not well at all,” Fernet said back on Dec. 21.

On Friday, defence lawyer Marc Labelle said he has taken over the case and he told Quebec Court Judge Manon Ouimet that Fernet’s request was “an error.” Ouimet announced that the psychiatrist’s evaluation was not ready anyway.

Labelle asked that the court order for the evaluation be retracted. He explained that if any evaluation should have been ordered, at this early stage, it should have been to determine whether Battikh is fit to appear in court and able to follow a criminal proceeding.

“In my opinion, he is fit,” Labelle said while asking his client have a bail hearing as soon as possible.

“It would be useless (to have an evaluation) and it will delay your case for another month,” Labelle told Battikh as the two met for the first time when the accused was standing inside the prisoner’s dock in the courtroom for Friday’s brief hearing.

Battikh faces a total of 10 charges, including kidnapping, assault on the boy’s father and five counts alleging he possessed a prohibited weapon, a Taserlike device.

The bail hearing is scheduled for Feb. 1.