After the shooting death of former rugby international Federico Martín-Aramburú, Loïk Le Priol, the main suspect, has been indicted and remanded in custody, a freedom and detention judge said on Friday. The 27-year-old former soldier and activist of the ultra-right Groupe Union Défense (GUD) movement was arrested on the night of March 22 to 23 in Hungary. He arrived Thursday evening in France and was placed in detention before being brought to justice.
Loïk Le Priol is suspected of having shot the 42-year-old former Biarritz Olympique player after an altercation in a bar in the sixth arrondissement of the capital, in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district, on March 19. The 27-year-old former soldier and activist of the ultra-right Groupe Union Défense (GUD) movement was indicted on charges of “murder” and “possession of category B and C weapons”.
The judge gave reasons for the detention “without surprise”in particular with regard to “versions that need to be confronted“between the suspects and the risk of “repetition” because of a “course of violence”. In this investigation, two other people were indicted and remanded in custody.
“My client does not wish to make more statements than those he made in the context of the proceedings before the judge”, said Loïk Le Priol’s lawyer, Me Xavier Nogueras, after the hearing. The latter had called for a debate behind closed doors, considering that his client’s family was suffering “explicit death threats, in particular from people who claim to be from the Basque community, from the far left and from the ultra-left”.
At the start of the hearing, Loïk Le Priol, brown hair combed to the side, black mustache, stood straight in the box when his lawyer spoke, hands clasped in front of him. The ex-marine commando, known for his radicalism and its violence, had been arrested on the night of March 22 to 23 in Hungary, at the Zahony border post as he was preparing to go to Ukraine. Its anchorage to the ultra-right earned it to be “file S” by the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI), sources familiar with the matter told AFP.