Trial in Paris for murder of Argentine rugby player Federico Aramburu
The former Argentine international Federico Aramburu was killed in Paris in March 2022 by two far-right activists. The trial began this Monday.
Four defendants before French justice in death of former Puma Aramburu
The trial for the murder of former Argentine international rugby player Federico Martín Aramburu began this Monday in Paris, according to france24.com. The main defendant, Loïk Le Priol, aged 32, is charged with murder before a court in the French capital; his friend Romain Bouvier, aged 35, faces attempted murder charges. Both face life imprisonment.
Aramburu, centre for the Pumas with 22 international appearances, was living in south-west France and had travelled to Paris to watch a match between France and England. In the early hours of 19 March 2022, a dispute with two far-right activists in the Latin Quarter ended his life.
A fight in the Latin Quarter
Around 05:00, Aramburu and his friend Shaun Hegarty — a former teammate at Biarritz club and later partner in a tourism agency — sat on the terrace of a bar on Boulevard Saint-Germain. They wanted to eat something before returning to the hotel.
At the same tables were Bouvier, Le Priol and the latter's girlfriend. The conversations, muddied by alcohol, appeared to be taking place in a relaxed manner. A camera captured Le Priol handling a short firearm hidden in his belt in the toilets.
The atmosphere on the terrace became increasingly tense: Hegarty reproached Le Priol for the way he was rebuking a customer; Le Priol, in response, gave him a few taps on the head. The history of the two defendants points to a repeated attraction to violence and weapons: both were imprisoned for an assault recorded in October 2015 against a former leader of the GUD, a far-right student organisation of which Bouvier was a member.
In that earlier proceeding, the court acknowledged an impairment of Le Priol's responsibility, attributed to post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from his years in the military. That diagnosis divides experts and will be one of the central axes of the current trial.
Aramburu's final moments
At 06:00, when leaving the bar, Aramburu grabbed Le Priol by the hood and violently threw him to the ground. A fight on the pavement left the former soldier with several broken teeth. Hegarty and Aramburu walked away.
Witnesses described Le Priol beside himself, screaming: "I'm going to kill him". He ordered his partner to fetch his Jeep and set off at a brisk pace in the same direction as the sportsmen.
The vehicle caught up with them on the boulevard. Bouvier, also armed, fired several times and fled running. He will testify that he panicked, that Aramburu wanted to continue the fight and that he fired to protect his escape without intending to harm him.
Aramburu got up when Le Priol arrived seconds later. The former soldier fired six shots. He explained that he was afraid and that he acted on survival instinct before escaping on foot.
The Argentine collapsed. "I'm going to die", he told Hegarty before dying, leaving his widow María and three orphaned children: Trinidad, Justina and Santiago.
Arrests and other defendants
Le Priol was arrested days later in Hungary, when he was heading towards Ukraine. Bouvier was arrested in France. Along with them, two other defendants stand trial: Le Priol's ex-girlfriend, aged 29, for complicity in attempted murder, and a far-right sympathiser aged 37 accused of having helped Bouvier during his brief escape.
The trial is scheduled to conclude on 25 September.
Source: Google News AR — Crime