Unexpected turn in the crime of former Puma Aramburu: the evidence that complicates one of the detainees

The investigation into the murder of Federico Martín Aramburu continues. With the three main suspects already detained, the police endeavored to understand what the exact role of each one was in the crime and in this context new information has caused a turn in the cause that further complicates one of the defendants.

So far, thanks to the testimony of several witnesses, it became known that the 42-year-old former athlete had argued with two men, Loïk Le Priol and Romain Bouvier, at the Le Mabillon bar and leaving the venue the confrontation became physical, although the employees of the establishment intervened to calm the situation. Later on his way back to the hotel, the Argentinean, who was with his partner Shaun Hegarty, was hit by gunfire believed to have left a van driven by a woman named Lison, who was also arrested.

On Wednesday, the French newspaper L'Equipe revealed that sources close to the investigation provided new data that help us understand even more what happened that night and that put Romain Bouvier at the center of the scene. It is that until now Loïk Le Priol had been singled out as the main perpetrator of the crime, but in reality it would have been his friend who provoked everything.

As published, it was Romain Bouvier who met Federico Aramburu on public roads after the fight at the bar. The former Pumas player had gone to the hotel to ask for some ice for his face when he again ran into this former GUD militant (a far-right student union), who, after a brief and violent interview, threw two shots at the ground near his feet. Immediately afterwards, Bouvier “fired twice more at the victim, wounding him in the leg and in the lower abdomen region”. Reports to which the Gallic portal had access indicate that the Frenchman quickly fled there on foot until he took a taxi several blocks later.

At that time, Loïk Le Prio was a few meters from the place and upon hearing the gunfire he rushed towards him towards the scene. There he reunited with a wounded Aramburu, with whom he had a new struggle that ended when the Frenchman took his gun and fired six times. Four of the 22LR caliber bullets hit the body of the Argentine, who died on the spot.

“There was some confusion that Federico Aramburu had been hit by Romain Bouvier's shooting,” an anonymous source close to the investigation told the newspaper L'Equipe. Now, thanks to the evidence of the bullets they gave in Aramburu, it would seem clear that both Bouvier and Le Priol shot the former Argentine athlete, which complicates the situation of the former of them, who until now was seen as an accomplice. It is not yet clear whether Lyson, the 24-year-old woman who was driving the van in which the suspects left the bar after the first confrontation, was present at the time of the crime.

Romain Bouvier was the last person arrested for the crime. According to close sources of the case entrusted to the AFP news agency, the 31-year-old man was found by the BRI (Brigade for Investigation and Intervention) of Nantes in the French department of Sarthe (west of the country). His lawyer, Me Antoine Vey, spoke to the French press on March 25 and said that the only request they made before the judge was that their client be kept in an individual cell so that he could “concentrate, remember the details and put the chronology in place”. At the same time, when it was time to appear, the accused chose not to answer the questions put to him: “On the advice of my lawyer, I want to exercise my right to silence,” was all he said.

It's not the first time this guy's been in trouble with the law. The French digital newspaper Mediapart explained that he and Le Priol frequented for several years a circle that brought together activists from the National Youth Front and the GUD (Union Defense Group), a union of French far-right students. In October 2015, they and three other members of the GUD were accused of violently beating and humiliating a former union leader, forcing him to strip.

Despite all this background, lawyer Vey described his client as an intelligent and calm man: “I knew him in his youth, he was a righteous and serene young man. He attended eloquence competitions and was also quite gifted.”

Authorities managed to find the suspect thanks to his credit card. While he was wanted by the police, he used the plastic in a hotel in Solesmes and then at an ATM. According to newspaper reports, he did not resist detention: “I was sitting quietly on a bench,” revealed the website L'Equipe. The investigating judge on freedoms and detention (JLD) at the Palais de Justice in Paris decided to place him in pre-trial detention, as did the other two detainees.

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