Femicide of Assia Matoug in Buttes-Chaumont: Lakhdar Matoug tried in Paris
Lakhdar Matoug, 54, appears before the Paris assize court for the murder and dismemberment of his wife Assia, whose remains were found in a Parisian park.
Trial of Assia Matoug femicide: children witness a macabre staged scene
On Monday, 13 February 2023, at 3.05 pm, a gardener at the Buttes-Chaumont park in the 19th arrondissement of Paris discovers a black refuse bag placed on a heap of branches. Inside: a woman's pelvis, still clothed in jeans. Other body parts, including the head, are found nearby, near an old railway line crossing the park. Part of the body will remain undiscovered for several weeks.
It is on the basis of this discovery that the trial has opened, heard before the Paris assize court since Monday, 6 July. According to liberation.fr, Lakhdar Matoug, 54, is charged with murder of a spouse — the legal classification for femicide — after strangling and then dismembering his wife Assia, 46 at the time of the events, and mother of their three children. In remand custody for three years, he admits to the facts but denies any intention to kill.
The connection with a reported disappearance
The link between the human remains found in the Buttes-Chaumont and the disappearance of Assia Matoug, reported ten days earlier by her husband at the police station, is established the day after the discovery. Investigators from the criminal investigation department, while initially exploring the possibility of a chance encounter, gradually piece together a staged scenario reminiscent of other femicide cases, such as those of Alexia Daval or Delphine Jubillar.
The first troubling element: whilst his wife is supposed to have disappeared on 31 January early in the morning when leaving their home in Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis), Lakhdar Matoug waits until 3 February to report her disappearance. In the meantime, he simulates searches — calls to the victim's phone, visits to the Aides association where she worked, trips to car boot sales in Pantin — and contacts BFMTV to publicise the matter. When the death is announced, he breaks down in tears in front of the investigators and his children.
Phones and cameras tell a different story
The analysis of telephone data and video surveillance contradicts the husband's account. The last relay antenna activated by Assia Matoug's phone on 1 February covers her home address. No further activity is then recorded on her bank account. The last image of her alive, captured by a surveillance camera, dates from 27 January, when she was returning home.
After the disappearance, her husband carries out internet searches on how to locate a switched-off phone and how to report a concerning disappearance, whilst continuing to play online games and visit pornographic websites. Before the official identification of the Buttes-Chaumont body, he types into a search engine: "How to react live on BFMTV?"
The investigations establish that Lakhdar Matoug purchases an angle grinder, gloves, refuse bags and protective sheeting from a Castorama store on 2 February. That same day, a camera films him making trips between his building and the park, a shopping bag full in his hand, his phone in airplane mode.
The children at the heart of the account
The interviews of the couple's three children, aged 8 to 16, provide determining evidence. They state they last saw their mother on 30 January around 5 pm, asleep on the sofa. Their father had asked them not to disturb her, claiming she was ill. The following morning, according to him, she had left early for a car boot sale.
Assia's relatives also report alarming confidences she had made to them shortly before her death: "It feels like someone is strangling me. I am sure I am going to die. Be careful, look after my children."
Debts and a dispute over 1,400 euros
The family also reports serious financial difficulties. Lakhdar Matoug's construction company had been wound up in 2021, leaving him heavily in debt, including 18,000 euros owed to the tax authorities — a sum eventually settled by his wife. At the time of the events, the couple was three months behind on rent. The day before the disappearance, Lakhdar Matoug had spent nearly three hours outside a café attempting to recover a debt.
Taken into police custody on 23 February, cornered by the evidence, he admits to killing his wife during an argument over a bundle of 1,400 euros she kept in her handbag — a sum he would cash shortly after the murder. According to his account, she threw herself at him to recover the money, a struggle ensued and he seized her by the neck with his elbow to "make her quiet, because she was shouting 'Stop, stop, let me go, you're hurting me'". He claims he acted in panic and did not intend to kill her. The prosecution points out that he did not call for emergency services after realising she was no longer breathing.
Injuries that raise questions
Following Lakhdar Matoug's directions, the last part of Assia's body is found in an industrial wasteland in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis). The autopsies reveal numerous bruises and haematomas. According to the pathologist, these injuries are not consistent with a simple altercation. The prosecution and the civil party seek to demonstrate that this was a deliberate act, contradicting the involuntary manslaughter thesis advanced by the defence.
Source: Google News FR — Crime (fr)