the suspect, Taha O., indicted for repeat murder and rape

Taha O., main suspect in the murder of Philippine, was indicted for murder and repeat rape, the Paris prosecutor’s office said this Wednesday evening. It had been handed over by Switzerland to French authorities earlier in the day, the Figaro a source close to the file, confirming information from BFMTV .

Heard on Monday by the Geneva public prosecutor’s office, this 22-year-old Moroccan finally accepted a simplified extradition procedure, after initially refusing. He indeed had the choice between extradition “simplified”fast, and extradition “ordinary”longer.

Philippine, a 19-year-old student at Paris-Dauphine University, disappeared on Friday September 20 after her lunch break. The next day, his lifeless body was found half buried in the Bois de Boulogne, not far from his university. A suspect, Taha O., was arrested on September 24 in Geneva, Switzerland. A judicial investigation was opened against him for “murder, accompanied or followed by another crime, rape, theft and fraud”.

Already convicted of rape and under OQTF

This crime aroused immense emotion in France and provoked lively debates. At the end of summer 2019, shortly after his arrival in France, the suspect raped a 23-year-old student in a forest in Taverny (Val-d’Oise). In October 2021, after two years of pre-trial detention, Taha O. was sentenced by the Val-d’Oise juvenile court to seven years in prison. In June 2024, after his release from prison, he was placed in an administrative detention center (CRA) in Metz. At the same time, the Yonne prefecture issued an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF) against him and a request for a consular permit was made by the French authorities in Morocco.

On September 3, a liberty and detention judge authorized his release from detention, while recognizing a risk of “reiteration of criminal acts”. The Moroccan was then under house arrest in a hotel in Yonne, where he never went. On September 4, Morocco sent a consular pass to France, allowing the expulsion of Taha O., but the latter then disappeared into thin air. Philippine’s lifeless body was found less than three weeks later.