France has filed a request with Swiss authorities for the extradition of the man suspected of Philippine’s murder, French Justice Minister Didier Migaud announced Thursday morning on BFMTV. Swiss authorities have confirmed this information.
France submitted its request on October 8, spokesperson for the Federal Office of Justice, Ingrid Ryser, told Keystone-ATS. The office is currently examining it and the extradition procedure is continuing, she added, without giving further details.
‘France will, of course, insist that this person be tried in France,’ declared French Minister Didier Migaud on the BFMTV television channel. The request was made by France on time. Now the procedure must take its course.’
A judicial investigation was opened for rape and homicide after the discovery, on September 21, of the body of Philippine, a 19-year-old student at Paris-Dauphine University, found buried in the Bois de Boulogne, in western Paris.
The main suspect, a 22-year-old Moroccan, was arrested in Geneva on September 24. ‘He is today detained in Switzerland, so there is a guarantee regarding his detention,’ assured Didier Migaud.
Already convicted
The suspect had already been convicted in 2021 for rape, then released in June 2024, ‘at the end of his sentence’ according to the Paris prosecutor’s office. He was then placed in an administrative detention center (CRA) in Metz.
Upon his release, he was placed under house arrest in a hotel in Yonne, where he had never been. Having failed to comply with his obligation to report, he was included in the wanted persons file the day before the murder, September 19.
He was under an obligation to leave the territory (OQTF), provoking strong reactions, in particular from the far right. The French Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, also urged us to ‘evolve our legal arsenal’.
/ATS
