Blood on seatbelt leads to arrest in France of suspected driver in Claudia hit-and-run
Abdelhak L., fugitive since 2021, was arrested in Illies following DNA analysis of a bloodstain found on the vehicle involved. He will face extradition proceedings to Spain.
Arrest in France over fatal 2021 hit-and-run
According to ABC, genetic analysis of blood found on the seatbelt of a black Citroën C2 led on Monday to the arrest in Illies, France, of Abdelhak L., suspected of the fatal hit-and-run of Claudia S. M., a medical student from the Canary Islands. The incident occurred in Ciudad Universitaria (Moncloa-Aravaca), Madrid, in the early morning of 20 November 2021. The detainee, born in Morocco in February 1999, will face extradition proceedings to Spain.
The vehicle was located a few hours after the hit-and-run on the southern ring road, at the corner of Ibor and Monsánchez streets. A woman walking her dog alerted the Municipal Police after observing a parked car with cardboard and towels covering the broken windscreen and a dent. The Traffic Judicial Police Station collected samples, including blood from the driver's seatbelt.
The instruction court number 18 in Madrid sent the genetic profile to the National Toxicological Institute and to the General Headquarters of Scientific Police, extracting a complete DNA profile of the suspect. In parallel, investigators identified the owner of the vehicle, a young man coerced by the fugitive to lend him the car. That young man provided the identity of the driver: Abdelhak L., with a record for robbery with violence, intimidation, attacks on agents and theft, including robberies of transport vehicles.
Traffic expertise determined that the Citroën was travelling at over 60 kilometres per hour on an urban road with a 30 km/h speed limit. The two companions of the suspect that night were arrested days later; one did not make a statement, the other described the incident without revealing Abdelhak's whereabouts. Both were cleared from the investigation. The Uber driver who took Claudia to her building entrance was interrogated; a witness to the hit-and-run, he left the scene without providing assistance, a fact that could constitute failure to render aid if he is found to have had the ability to provide resuscitation.
In early 2022, the court issued an international search order. Central Udyco officers traced homes in Madrid and Catalonia belonging to relatives and friends without result. Last year, he was arrested in a drug operation in France; DNA samples were taken, and he was released. Upon entering the genetic profile into a shared database via Europol with Spain, it matched the person wanted in connection with the 2021 hit-and-run on paseo de Juan XXIII.
French police had him registered under a different identity due to false documentation. Subsequent comparison of fingerprints from both countries confirmed they were the same individual. He was apprehended on Monday in Illies, a locality near Lille in northern France.
He faces a sentence of one to four years in prison for manslaughter; six months to four years for abandonment of a victim. He also faces pending charges for gender-based violence, homicide, attacks on a law enforcement officer and bodily harm.
Source: ABC