Four people including two men linked with France’s extreme right are set to stand trial in Paris over the killing of former Argentina rugby player Federico Martín Aramburú. The trial taking place more than four years after Aramburú was shot dead in March 2022 starts on Monday, with a verdict expected on Sept. 25. The 42-year-old Aramburú was killed as he was leaving a bar in Paris.
He had traveled to the capital with his friend and former New Zealand player Shaun Hegarty to attend the Six Nations Championship. Aramburú, married and the father of three, had settled in the French Basque Country at the end of his career in 2012, having played for Biarritz, Perpignan, Dax and Glasgow in Scotland. He earned 22 caps for Argentina and helped his country finish third at the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
Last Saturday, Argentina’s players warmed up before a match against Australia wearing T-shirts with “Justicia por Fede” (Justice for Fede) written on them in his memory. Argentina’s rugby federation also called for justice to be served. Loïk Le Priol, 32, is being prosecuted for murder, while Romain Bouvier, 35, faces charges of attempted murder.
They both face the possibility of life imprisonment. Le Priol’s former girlfriend, 29-year-old Lyson Rochemir, who drove Bouvier to the scene of the shooting, also faces a possible life sentence for complicity in attempted murder. A fourth defendant faces up to three years in prison for concealing evidence in order to protect one of the shooters.
Bouvier and Le Priol had been banned from seeing each other following their convictions for aggravated assault against a former president of a far-right student association in 2015. As members of the same organization, they said they had wanted to humiliate him because he “boasted about having assaulted women.” On March 19, 2022, shortly after 5 a.m., the two former rugby players arrived at a bar in Paris’s Latin Quarter, Le Mabillon. They sat at a table next to the one occupied by the far-right activists.
Everyone was under the influence of alcohol, the investigation showed. Although the initial conversation appeared cordial, things quickly deteriorated and insults were exchanged. Le Priol allegedly told Aramburú: “You’re going to shut up, otherwise I’ll shoot you and then I’ll (expletive) your mother.” The defendants dispute that these words were spoken.
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