Aramburu trial in Paris: three weeks to judge a Saint-Germain-des-Prés murder
The trial of Federico Martin Aramburu's murder opens on 7 September in Paris. Four defendants face trial for acts committed on 19 March 2022.
Opening of Aramburu trial: the night of 19 March 2022 re-enacted before the jury court
The trial of the murder of Federico Martin Aramburu opens on Monday 7 September at 2.30 p.m. at the Paris courthouse, reports rugbyrama.fr. Three weeks of hearings are scheduled to hear the defendants, witnesses and the family of the victim, a former Argentine international rugby player.
The proceedings will reconstruct in detail the night of 19 March 2022: the movements, surveillance footage, gunshots, and the Jeep driven through the streets of Saint-Germain-des-Prés during a fatal pursuit. Several years of investigation — ballistic expertise, reconstruction, confrontation of accounts — were necessary to bring to trial a case born from a few minutes of extreme violence.
Four defendants, distinct strategies
Loïk Le Priol and Romain Bouvier, imprisoned since 2022, are the two central figures in the case. Both members of the Gud, an extreme-right movement dissolved in June 2024 by Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, they acknowledge having used their weapons but contest the charges brought by the prosecution.
Le Priol, a former marine commando, is tried for murder and faces a life sentence. His defence intends to argue both the absence of premeditation and self-defence. Bouvier faces trial for attempted murder — he is ultimately not charged with Aramburu's death — and his defence will seek to demonstrate that he had no intention to kill. The two men thus present themselves before the jurors with defence strategies that no longer entirely overlap, even though both risk life imprisonment.
Lyson R., Le Priol's partner at the time of the events and the driver of the vehicle, must answer for complicity in attempted murder. A fourth defendant, Anthony S., faces trial notably for having aided Bouvier after the events and for the disappearance of a weapon; he faces three years' imprisonment.
The central question: was there premeditation?
The legal qualification of the facts constitutes the major issue of the trial. A murder committed with premeditation or ambush is legally murder, punishable by life imprisonment. It is precisely this recharacterisation that Le Priol's defence intends to contest. For Bouvier, the argument will focus on the absence of intent to kill.
The anticipated testimony of Shaun Hegarty
Among the voices to be heard, that of Shaun Hegarty will be particularly scrutinised. The former player and former president of Biarritz Olympique was at Aramburu's side that night. As the trial approached, he told rugbyrama.fr that his sleepless nights have resumed: "We are going through a replay of that entire night. The brain is working and, from time to time, it prevents me from sleeping." Hegarty nevertheless announced his presence at every day of the trial: "I will be there to listen, from the opening phase to the final point."
A case that extends beyond the rugby world
Le Priol and Bouvier's membership of the Gud quickly gave the case a political dimension. Following Aramburu's death, his family publicly identified this ideological environment. The investigation, however, did not identify a political or racist motive. The jury court will judge individuals for their acts and intentions, not the extreme-right movement to which they were connected.
Source: Google News FR — Crime (fr)