What we know about the suspect arrested Tuesday in Switzerland

A 22-year-old man was identified and arrested on Tuesday in the canton of Geneva. Born in Morocco, he was in an irregular situation on French soil.

The investigation is progressing, three days after the discovery of Philippine’s body in the Bois de Boulogne. A young suspect was arrested in Switzerland on Tuesday, September 24, the Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed to France Télévisions. Philippine, a student at Paris-Dauphine, was 19 years old. She was last seen on Friday, September 20 at 2 p.m. at the university. Her body was found the next day as part of a search organized by her family. The victim had been “formally identified late in the evening” And “an investigation into the charge of voluntary homicide has been entrusted to the criminal brigade”. Franceinfo looks back at what we know, at this stage, about the suspect arrested in this case.

He was identified on Monday and arrested on Tuesday at Geneva train station.

The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed to France Télévisions that“a suspect has been identified and arrested” Tuesday in the canton of Geneva. He had been identified on Monday and was arrested at the station Geneva-Cornavin around 7 p.m. on Tuesday, at the request of the criminal brigade, France Télévisions learned from a source close to the case. “An extradition request will be sent to the Swiss authorities without delay”the prosecution said.

CCTV footage and telephone calls helped track down the suspect, according to a source close to the investigation at France Télévisions. According to the source close to the case, the suspect was identified using a first phone, which he later got rid of. He made a bank withdrawal in Montreuil using the victim’s card, then used a second phone that was traced, leading to his arrest on Tuesday. Once extradited, the suspect will be brought before the French judge in charge of the investigation.

He was subject to an obligation to leave French territory

According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, the suspect arrested was born in 2002 in Morocco. He arrived legally in France in 2019, with a tourist visa, franceinfo learned. He is 22 years old and then found himself in an irregular situation on French soil. He was in fact subject to an obligation to leave French territory, France Télévisions learned from a source close to the investigation.

He has already been convicted of rape.

The young man is already known to the French justice system. He was sentenced in October 2021 “for acts of rape committed in 2019, when he was a minor”according to the Paris prosecutor’s office. He was then released last June, “at the end of the sentence”, adds the same source. The events took place in a wood in Taverny (Val-d’Oise). The suspect had since been registered in the file of perpetrators of sexual or violent offences. This file “serves to prevent the repetition of these offences” And “to facilitate the identification and location of the perpetrators of these offences”specifies the website Service-public.fr.

During his five years of incarceration, the suspect had no telephone contact and received no visits, franceinfo has learned. Upon his release from prison, he was placed in an administrative detention center in Metz (Moselle). France made a request for a consular pass to organize his return to Morocco, but it was not made to the right department. A request was made again.

In early September, the suspect was released following several requests for an extension of detention. He was then placed under house arrest and required to report, but the young man disappeared. Morocco sent its pass a few days later. The suspect was added to the wanted persons file on Thursday, the day before Philippine disappeared.

He was reportedly seen with a pickaxe in the Bois de Boulogne

According to a source close to the investigation at France Télévisions, a man wearing a surgical mask and holding a pickaxe had been seen near the lake in the Bois de Boulogne at the time of the events. Employees of a funfair had spotted him. The suspect arrested Tuesday in Switzerland appears to be the man armed with a pickaxe seen at the end of the week in the Bois de Boulogne, according to a source close to the case at France Télévisions.