Loik Le Priol (27), former French Navy commando officer and alleged material author of the crime of the former rugbier Federico Aramburu, spends his days in the city of Budapest, the capital of Hungary. There he arrived in the last hours following being arrested on the night of Tuesday, March 22, in the border town of Zahony, on the border with Ukraine. As announced by the local court, he will remain there for the next ten days until his extradition to France is resolved.
Le Priol has traveled more than 1,800 kilometers since he escaped from Paris, in the early hours of Saturday, March 19, when he allegedly shot and killed the former Los Pumas player, leaving a bar in the French capital. The alleged shooter argued that his intention was to join the Ukrainian forces to fight in the war with Russia, although investigators believe he was part of a plan so they might not locate him.
The judge of the court of Budapest said that the process takes ten days
Judge Judit Csiszar, in charge of the Budapest court, announced at the hearing that the procedure provides for the delivery of the suspect “within ten days”, although Laszlo Beno, the former military’s lawyer, assured that the French authorities will probably “intervene quickly” so that the extradition is resolved “in the next 24 or 48 hours.”
The main suspect did not comment on the accusation once morest him, although he spoke in favor of his transfer to France to be investigated for the murder of Federico Aramburú, a former CASI and Olimpique Biarritz player, among others. The defendant followed the hearing from a video conference room, guarded by four Hungarian police men, all armed with machine guns, pistols and bulletproof vests.
Le Priol is a member of the far-right movement called Grupo Unión Defensa (GUD). Between 2010 and 2011 he joined the French army, and was trained at the Brest Navy school, but shortly following he began to have indiscipline problems. In 2013 and 2015 he participated in operations in Mali and Djibouti.
According to data from the French Navy, he returned to his country of origin during his last mission due to a state of post-traumatic stress classified as serious, and which ultimately led to his expulsion from the force.
The high level of conflict was not something new in his life. In 2014, for example, he was convicted of an act of violenceand four years later he was sentenced to four months in prison for a group attack and under the influence of alcohol.
In addition to the accusation of homicide for which he must respond in France, he has another pending legal case that began in October 2015, when Le Priol, along with Romain Bouvier – the other suspect arrested for the crime of the former rugby player – beat and humiliated a former leader of the GUD, who was beaten to strip naked.
For this case he might receive a sentence of up to ten years in prison. He is due to appear on June 1 before a criminal court in France.
Julien Rochedy, director of the National Youth Front (FNJ) of the French extreme right, acknowledged that he had a close relationship with the accused, but said that “he had always been half crazy.”
The accused is a former member of the French navy and a militant of the extreme right
“Le Priol was a friend, we hardly saw each other anymore, but we were together several times around 2012 and 2014,” explained the manager.
“Everyone who knew him – he added – thought he had calmed down. He was always crazy; He was followed by an Army psychiatrist, but the last time I saw him in Paris he had a girlfriend, plans, he seemed calm. We were glad ‘that he was better’”.
five shots. Aramburú was retired from sports activity and lived in France, where he lived with his wife and his three children. He had a tourism company and another dedicated to wine.
On the night of Friday, March 18, he met with a group of friends and former colleagues at the bar Volver, owned by the Argentine Carlos Muguruza, a restaurant chosen by footballers such as Angel Di María, Kylian Mbappé or David Beckham.
Around one o’clock he went to Le Mabillon, a pub on Boulevard Saint-Germain. He was accompanied by Frenchman Shaun Hegarty, a business partner and former teammate of the Biarritz Olympique club, where the Argentine played between 2004 and 2006.
According to the French press, the former athletes argued with two men who were sitting at a nearby table, and at one point they ended up fighting. It was around 6 in the morning local time (2 in Argentina).
“It was a dispute, things that can happen at dawn. It was fixed, but those men came back and shot him,” said a witness, according to a report from the AFP agency.
Aramburú and Hegarty left the bar thinking the fight was over. But when they were walking along Boulevard Saint-Michel, a man got out of a Jeep brand vehicle and started shooting. Between three and five shots of a firearm were heard. The former Argentine rugbier received at least three shots and died practically on the spot.
The role of the third defendant
Romain Bouvier, the third suspect who is accused of the murder of Federico Aramburú, was arrested on Wednesday, March 23, one day following the alleged shooter, Loïk Le Priol, fell.
Bouvier, also a member of the extremist group Defense Union Group (GUD), was captured in Sarthe, western France, following withdrawing money from an ATM. “He was almost bald and with a black beard,” authorities described.
Unlike Le Priol, who is awaiting extradition proceedings in Hungary, Bouvier is already detained in Paris, accused of participating in the crime of the former Los Pumas player. According to witnesses, he fought and argued with the Argentine, but the one who shot him would be his friend.
Lison, a 24-year-old woman and partner of Le Priol, is the third defendant in the case. She is the one who was driving the Jeep in which the defendants escaped. She was charged with “complicity of murder” and is under house arrest but in police custody.
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