What were the moments before the murder of former Puma Aramburu: the violent profile of the alleged perpetrator of the shooting

In the last few hours a breakthrough was made in the investigation of the murder of Federico Martín Aramburu, the former Pumas player who died from several gunshots in the early hours of Saturday 19 March in Paris. The one who until now was the prime suspect, a 27-year-old subject identified by the name of Loïk Le Priol, was arrested by the police in Hungary was trying to escape to Ukraine to join the forces of that country in their fight against the invasion of Russia.

Now, while waiting to know if he will finally be returned to France for trial, new hypotheses were known about what would have been the minutes before Aramburu's death. After the altercation that took place inside the Le Mabillon bar, located in the heart of Paris, Aramburu and his friend and partner Shaun Hegarty, headed straight to the hotel where they were residing in the exclusive area of Boulevard Saint-Germain.

While they were walking, a vehicle similar to a jeep was placed in parallel and fired two shots, according to police sources to several Frenchmen, including Le Parisien. As the impacts were not accurate, one of the three crew members would have gotten out of the vehicle and, according to initial data that were not confirmed, they would have struggled. Once that action happened, one of the authors took a 22-caliber long rifle and fired six times at the body of the former Argentine rugby.

Four of those impacts hit the body: one projectile went to the spine, another to the neck, a third to the right thigh and the remaining to the left side of his body. After his arrest, it was confirmed that the material perpetrator of the Aramburu assassination was Loïk Le Priol, a 27-year-old man, former military man and one of the leaders of a far-right movement called GUD (Defence Union Group).

“The two friends wanted to eat something at dawn, after a party. In the spirit of the third half of rugby,” Christophe Cariou-Martin, Shaun Hegarty's lawyer, told RMC Sports. At the same time, he confirmed that he will present a legal measure for attempted murder against those involved in the act of extreme violence that ended with the death of the former Puma who was part of the squad that won the historic bronze at the 2007 World Cup in France.

In the last few hours, with the arrest of the woman who would have driven the car in which she, Le Priol and the third person implicated in the murder of Aramburu, a certain Romain B, data were known related to one of the leaders of the ultra-right group to which those involved belonged.

Le Priol trained at the criminal school of the French Navy in Brest between 2010 and 2011. He was later assigned to the Montfort marine command where he participated in external operations in Mali and Djibouti between 2013 and 2015. In that last year, it was decided to repatriate him on the recommendation of military doctors due to severe post-traumatic stress. He was then expelled for disciplinary reasons, sources from the French Navy told the AFP agency.

“He is known as an individual of unbridled and particularly uncontrollable violence, even with his own comrades,” said political scientist Jean-Yves Camus, a specialist in the far right. The defendant was sentenced at age 19 for violence, then at age 23, to four months suspended in prison for intentional violence in meetings and drunk driving, added local portal Marianne, adding that he was also implicated for having “beaten and strangled a prostitute” in Djibouti in 2015.

In addition, this 27-year-old was due to be tried next June along with four other individuals for “aggravated violence” by torture against the former president of the GUD organization, Édouard Klein, allegedly disbanded in 2017. In October 2015, Loïk and his henchmen beat and humiliated their victim until they forced her to strip. “Get up, put your balls on (...) You're a piece of crap. You have one last chance to get up or we will undress you,” Le Priol said during the attack in audios that were released when its implication in the case was confirmed.

Six years ago, the prime suspect of killing former Puma Aramburu founded a clothing brand, Babtou Solide Certifié, in which he marked his neo-Nazi profile by highlighting the white race above the rest. The beginning of your brand name (“Babtou”) is the word “toubab” in reverse, which in Africa is derogatory to designate a white person.

“Clothes created by whites for whites”, was the slogan of the clothing that Le Priol promoted in the nationalist movements and which was a success among the circles of its class. He showed this on his Facebook account, where you can see photos of him with his father, both very well dressed, with modern clothes and various tattoos. One of them is the one with a knife in his left forearm.

On the same platform he was shown some time ago in photos with Julien Rochedy, former national director of the National Youth Front (FNJ) between 2012 and 2014.” Yes, I guess, Le Priol was a friend, we hardly saw each other anymore, but sometimes we dated around 2012-2014. We had already moved after the E.Klein affair (the former president of the GUD attacked by Loïk Le Priol and others),” Rochedy reacted on his Twitter account.

“Everyone who knew Loïk thought he had calmed down. He had always been 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 it was better',” Rochedy added.

During his early morning detention in the border town of Zahony, an area bordering the borders of Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine, the perpetrator of the murder “told the police that he had military training and that he would have gone to Ukraine to fight,” the Hungarian police assured the French media RMC Sports. During the regulatory search carried out by the local police forces, three knives were found in the vehicle he used to move.

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