This “crime is abominable,” wrote the new Minister of the Interior in a press release. Several political leaders, from both the right and the left, had on Tuesday questioned “the criminal and administrative chain.” “It is up to us, public officials, to refuse to accept this fatality and to develop our legal arsenal, to protect the French,” added the minister, after the arrest of a Moroccan previously convicted of rape and subject to an obligation to leave the territory (OQTF).
Arm wrestling. “If the rules need to be changed, let’s change them,” continued Mr. Retailleau, who called for “working” “together, with the Minister of Justice, within the scope of our respective responsibilities, and under the authority of the Prime Minister (…) to ensure the safety of our compatriots.” A hard-right supporter, eager to “restore order,” the elected official from Vendée immediately began a standoff with the Minister of Justice, Didier Migaud, a former figure in the Socialist Party, over the supposed laxity of the justice system.
The body of Philippine, a 19-year-old student at Paris-Dauphine University, was found buried in the Bois de Boulogne, in western Paris, during a search on Saturday afternoon. It was her family who reported her missing. The student was last seen on Friday at lunchtime, at the university located very close to the woods.
The Moroccan national was arrested Tuesday in the canton of Geneva, Switzerland, “under a measure under foreign law, and was subsequently identified as a suspect in a murder committed in Paris,” the spokeswoman for the Swiss Ministry of Justice told AFP. “The Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) then ordered detention for the purposes of extradition on the basis of an arrest request from France,” which now has 18 days to file a formal request, she added.
Convicted of rape. Aged 22 and in an irregular situation, the suspect had been convicted in 2021 for a rape committed in 2019 and had been “released, at the end of his sentence, in June 2024”, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office. He was not granted parole, according to a French judicial source, he was released at the end of his sentence, benefiting from automatic reductions that the law still allowed at the time of his conviction.
He was released from detention on June 20 and placed in an administrative detention center (CRA) in Metz, according to a source close to the case. On September 3, a judge of liberties and detention validated his release from the detention center. A measure accompanied by an obligation to check in. On September 4, Morocco had “sent the expulsion authorization” to the French authorities, according to the same source. But the suspect was already out. The day before the murder, on September 19, he had been entered in the wanted persons file, because he did not respect his obligation to check in, again according to this source.
Philippine’s family does not wish to release any information to the press in order to “keep as much peace as possible”, Lorrain Merckaert, mayor of Montigny-le-Bretonneux (Yvelines) in contact with the parents, told AFP, expressing his “deep sadness” at “this terrible tragedy”. Contacted by AFP, the Versailles town hall indicated that a funeral would be held on Friday at Saint-Louis Cathedral.
Political reactions. The far right immediately stepped up to the plate, as did left-wing figures. “Philippine’s life was stolen from her by a Moroccan migrant under an OQTF,” reacted the president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella, on X, adding: “It is time for this government to act: our compatriots are angry and are not going to mince words.” “This is the problem with the OQTF (Obligation to Leave French Territory, Editor’s note), it has to happen quickly,” stressed the former French president, François Hollande, who blamed the “criminal and administrative channel” on franceinfo.
Green MP Sandrine Rousseau considered that this “femicide” deserved “to be judged and punished severely”, while adding that the extreme right would “try to take advantage of it to spread its racist and xenophobic hatred”. The rate of execution of removal measures (OQTF) in France is the lowest in the European Union: around 7% compared to almost 30% at EU level. A “consular pass” must be obtained from the country of origin.
Tiphaine LE LIBOUX with Christophe VOGT in Geneva
© Agence France-Presse
