On Thursday, October 19, Miljan R. turned on his television and saw the news channels reporting on the numerous false bomb threats that were wreaking havoc in the country. He picked up his phone, dialed 17, the emergency police number, and said: "The throne of Louis XIV is going to blow up. See you later. Evacuate." The Château de Versailles – which had been the object of three false alarms in previous days, and three more since then – was emptied of its thousands of visitors and sealed off for two hours.

On Monday, October 23, Miljan R., wearing an oversized orange sweater and a long gray t-shirt, stumbled from his bench and introduced himself, looking bewildered, in the Versailles court. It was the first trial in the wave of false bomb threats that has spread across France, affecting tourist sites and airports. The repeated evacuations have irked the government. prompting Transport Minister Clément Beaune to say, "The smart alecs who play this kind of game are in fact big morons, if not major delinquents."

Miljan R. was not that smart, though: The 37-year-old called from his own phone, and was quickly identified by the police. He's not a major delinquent, either, having no criminal record. He suffers from schizophrenia with paranoid tendencies, attends a self-help group for people with disabilities, and lives with his parents because he's "afraid to live on his own."

Miljan R. has been admitted to a psychiatric facility on several occasions and sometimes forgets to take his medicine – which, he said, was the case on October 19. The psychiatry expert concluded the man had "impaired discernment" at the time of the events. "It was just for fun," Miljan R. told him. "Do you think it's funny?" asked the judge. "No," replied Miljan R. in a neutral tone, "But I did it anyway. Ten seconds later, I regretted it, but it was too late."

The hearing lasted a quarter of an hour. The defendant uttered four sentences. "I'm sorry for the people, for the château itself," he concluded. "What are we going to do with this gentleman?" asked his lawyer. The prosecutor, "in view of his particular personality," requested a year's imprisonment, including six months suspended. The defense called for community service or a simple suspended sentence, urging the court not to make an example of this singular case, and to disregard the risk of being seen as generous: "Justice is not lax just because it doesn't send someone with mental retardation to prison."

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