A Moroccan youngster who was under a deportation order, but was still in France, enhanced his curriculum vitae by allegedly raping and murdering a college co-ed in a suburb of Paris last weekend. The confused youth then absconded to Switzerland, where he was apprehended on Tuesday. He will presumably be extradited to France to face trial.

Many thanks to Gary Fouse for translating this article from Le Figaro:

Murder of Philippine: Judicial investigation opened for homicide, but also for rape

September 25, 2024

The investigating judge has issued an arrest warrant for the suspect, Taha O., who was arrested in Switzerland on September 24. He was already known to French justice authorities and was the subject of an Order to Leave French Territory [deportation].

Since Tuesday, an investigating judge has been in charge of the case opened specifically for homicide and rape in connection with the death of the young student, Philippine, in Paris, and in which a suspect was arrested Tuesday evening in Switzerland. The judicial investigation involves the crimes of murder preceded, accompanied, or followed by another crime, rape, theft, and fraud, all in connection with criminal recidivism.

At the end of the day on Tuesday, the investigating judge issued an arrest warrant against the suspect, identified thanks to the use of surveillance video images, specifically from the bank where he made a withdrawal using the bank card stolen from the victim, and “telephonic investigations”, the prosecutor’s office stated. “At the same time, the subject was arrested in Switzerland in the canton of Geneva,” at the end of Tuesday, he added. “The French judicial authorities will send an extradition request to the Swiss judicial authorities for the purpose of having the subject turned over as soon as possible,” the Public Ministry said.

The body of Philippine, a 19-year-old student at the University of Paris-Dauphine, was discovered buried in the Bois de Boulogne, in west Paris, during a search Saturday afternoon. The family had reported her disappearance. The student had been seen for the last time Friday during breakfast time at the university located near the woods. The results of the autopsy carried out Sunday, “have not been communicated at this point,” the prosecutor’s office noted.

Targeted for deportation

The suspect, Taha O., a Moroccan national, age 22, had been “sentenced by a juvenile criminal court in Val d’Oise on October 5, 2021, to seven years in prison for acts of rape committed in 2019 — for which he had been placed in pre-trial detention in 2019, and freed at the end of his sentence in June 2024,” the Public Ministry explained.

Illegally in France, he was notified of an order to leave French territory (OQTF) on June 18, 2024. Upon leaving prison, he was placed in an administrative retention center (CRA) in Metz. His stay was extended three times before he was assigned to house arrest in a hotel in the Yonne [French départment in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region].

On September 18, the prefecture of Yonne reported his non-compliance, and Taha O. was placed in the file of wanted persons.