They were suicidal
I’ve not heard any reporting say this. I’ve seen internet commenters presume this, but just because someone engaged in an action that could result in their death, doesn’t mean they’re suicidal.
Starting ones self on fire is a suicide attempt, regardless of political motive. This isn’t the same as sky diving or even trying to see the Titanic in a carbon fiber pod, this is pure and simple, self immolation to death that failed, so far.
Starting ones self on fire is a suicide attempt, regardless of political motive.
Is being a soldier assigned to conduct an assault operation also a suicide attempt?
Knowingly doing something that might kill you is not the sole criteria for a suicide attempt. If they weren’t suicidal it wasn’t a suicide attempt.
There is a substantial difference between “being suicidal” in the clinical sense and having decided to commit suicide. We have no reason to believe, lacking an avenue for the “self expression” of immolation, that he would have jumped from a bridge or hung himself in the attic. As far as we can tell, he looked at the present political situation and judged that the most effective thing he could do to accomplish what he believed had to be accomplished was by doing something that required the investment of dying. That’s not the same thing as “being suicidal”, though you and I both disagree with his choice for our respective reasons.