“It’s a huge satisfaction for all of us here. » During a press conference, the Grenoble public prosecutor, Eric Vaillant, welcomed the arrest, Thursday, around 5 p.m., in Portugal, of the man suspected of having killed Lilian Dejean on September 8 last year. This 49-year-old cleaning agent was shot in the chest early while trying to prevent a man from fleeing who had caused a traffic accident, driving a powerful rental car registered in Poland. “There is a video that shows the shooting,” revealed the magistrate. The suspect, Abdoul Diallo, 24, then fled on foot.
But he was quickly identified by investigators since his identity card was found in his vehicle on the day of the incident. The man, living in Saint-Martin-d'Hères in the suburbs of Grenoble, is already well known to the police and justice services. “He was incarcerated for the first time by the Grenoble children's judge at the age of 15. He has 19 convictions on his criminal record, many for acts of violence but also for drug trafficking. In total, he was sentenced to six years in prison over the last ten years,” explained Eric Vaillant.
A “sensitive and priority file”
Two and a half months later, he was arrested in Póvoa de Lanhoso, a town located about 70 km north of Porto. “Currently, he is detained in Portugal under the European arrest warrant issued by the Grenoble investigating judge. It will be handed over to this magistrate in the coming weeks,” explained Eric Vaillant, emphasizing the effectiveness of “European police and judicial cooperation” in this matter. When they were sure that the suspect was in this country, the French investigators communicated their information “to their Portuguese counterparts with whom they have been in daily contact for several weeks”.
The zonal director of the judicial police, Damien Delaby, wanted to thank the Porto PJ investigators “who used all means to very precisely locate the main suspect”. “Without them we would not be where we are today,” he stressed. From the start of the case, around forty agents from the organized and specialized crime division of Isère and Rhône were mobilized on this “sensitive and priority case”. The police deployed “significant technical and human resources” to track down the fugitive. Which ones? “The legal investigative techniques were used, nothing more,” simply indicated the public prosecutor who also did not wish to explain how the officials had located Abdoul Diallo in Portugal.
“He probably thought he was safe”
According to The Dauphiné Libérételephone investigations revealed that the suspect had left the Grenoble region after the tragedy and was heading towards the south of the country. Investigators then made the connection with relatives of the suspect who live in this country. Paris Match specifies that Abdoul Diallo's partner is of Portuguese origin, which prompted the police to particularly target this country. There, “he probably thought he was safe,” concluded Eric Vaillant. Investigations are continuing to determine whether the suspect benefited from the help of accomplices in his escape. So far, no other arrests have been made.
