Taha O., a 22-year-old Moroccan, is the main suspect in the rape and murder of the 19-year-old student, whose body was discovered on September 21, buried in the Bois de Boulogne, in western Paris. .
The young man was arrested at Geneva’s main station on September 24.
According to RTS, he indicated his refusal this Wednesday during a hearing before the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
France filed an extradition request on October 9.
2,800 people gathered in Versailles for the funeral of Philippine, found dead in the Bois de Boulogne
The Federal Ministry of Justice can follow the wishes of the accused or deviate from it and demand his extradition.
In this case, the accused can appeal all the way to the Federal Court, the highest legal authority in Switzerland, and he remains in detention until the end of the extradition procedure.
“The ordinary procedure can last more than a year, particularly in complex cases and if all avenues of appeal are used,” specifies the ministry’s information sheet on extradition procedures.
This murder caused immense emotion in France and also a virulent public debate.
The suspect was already 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 (east).
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), which provoked strong reactions, in particular from the far right. The Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, also urged us to “evolve our legal arsenal”.
