Trial of the assassination of Federico Martin Aramburu: 27 and 20 years in prison required

The prosecution is not seeking the maximum sentence for the two main defendants. At the trial for the assassination of Federico Martin Aramburu, the attorney general requested before the Paris Assize Court, Wednesday September 23, 27 years of criminal imprisonment against Loïk Le Priol, prosecuted for assassination, and 20 years in prison against Romain Bouvier, tried for attempted assassination. An obligation of socio-medical care is also requested for each of them. The verdict is expected Friday and they still face life imprisonment.

The two ultra-right activists have been trying to explain for more than two weeks the bloody episode of an alcoholic quarrel which began, on the night of March 19, 2022, on the terrace of the Mabillon bar, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. “This file is the chain of a murderous mechanism which leads to the irreparable,” believes Philippe Courroye. The attorney general compares this mechanism "to the four strokes of an engine", like that of a certain Jeep which appears in this criminal file. “There is the admission of gas or gasoline, compression, explosion and exhaust.”

"If you're afraid of a towel..."

Throughout the trial, Loïk Le Priol denied the premeditation of his action, pleading self-defense. “You have to have the stomach to support self-defense in this matter,” says Philippe Courroye indignantly. He notes that Loïk Le Priol had “evolutionary” statements on this subject, but above all that the imminent danger did not exist. “If you're afraid of a towel with three ice cubes,” he says ironically, in reference to the mini-ice cubes collected in a hotel by Federico Martin Aramburu and Shaun Hegarty, to soothe their wounds from the first fight. The attorney general recalls that the former soldier fired six times and hit the victim four times.

On the post-traumatic stress detected in 2015 in Loïk Le Priol, presented by the defense in this trial as likely to have impaired his discernment, Philippe Courroye considers, in view of the psychiatric expertise, that "no element allows us to affirm that the syndrome was active at the time of the events".

“The war traumatized person does not run after the symptoms of war.”

Philippe Courroye, general counsel

before the Paris Assize Court

During the hearings, Romain Bouvier, author of four shots, hitting the victim twice, claimed to have had neither the intention to kill, nor even to injure. “He failed [to kill], but we must distinguish the result from the intention,” underlines the representative of the public prosecutor. “We have four shots, voluntary (...) and a magazine which is emptied.” In view of the video surveillance images and the elements provided by a forensic doctor, Philippe Courroye believes, contrary to what Romain Bouvier has stated several times, that he "did not shoot towards the ground" voluntarily.

“An evil tandem”

On premeditation, for both, the Advocate General concludes that “the intention of homicide is obvious”, particularly because the rugby players were not armed. He adds that the criminal records of this “evil tandem” are “markers of dangerousness” for society. Loïk Le Priol and Romain Bouvier were, among others, convicted of violence in meetings against Edouard Klein, a former leader of the GUD, a small far-right group dissolved by the government in 2024.

“If the motive for this case has nothing political or xenophobic, the companionship of these individuals in the GUD is not unrelated to their drift and to the facts.”

Philippe Courroye, general counsel

before the Paris Assize Court