Their denials throughout the 13 days of hearing did not convince the attorney general, who delivered his submissions on Wednesday September 23 in the trial of the assassination of Federico Martin Aramburu. The prosecution demanded 27 years of imprisonment for assassination against Loïk Le Priol (32 years old) and 20 years for Romain Bouvier (35 years old) for attempted assassination.
Advocate General Philippe Courroye, during his 3 hours and 40 minutes of indictment, spoke at length about the “manhunt” led by this “evil tandem”. It took place after a late-night drunken brawl, which began on the terrace of a Parisian brasserie, with former rugby player Federico Aramburu and Shaun Hegarty, his friend, ex-teammate and partner in an events agency.
On the other hand, he asked that Lyson Rochemir (29 years old), companion at the time of Loïk Le Priol, be acquitted of the charge of complicity in an assassination attempt. She remains prosecuted for the removal and destruction of evidence and risks three years in prison, just like Antony Sorrentino, who notably helped Romain Bouvier to escape.
During the trial, the Paris Assize Court looked into the long-standing friendly relationship between Loïk Le Priol and Romain Bouvier, who had no longer had the right to see each other since 2017 due to common legal setbacks.
On the evening of the incident, they theoretically should not have been together because they were subject to judicial review for their involvement in the beating, in October 2015, of a leader of the student organization Groupe Union Défense (GUD). A radical and violent movement, dissolved in June 2024, within which the two main accused met in the early 2010s.
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The extremely violent attack on Édouard Klein earned them a prison sentence in June 2022: three years for Romain Bouvier and two years for Loïk Le Priol, who was recognized as having altered his responsibility due to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a legacy of his military years.
Three weeks earlier, their road accident had left a young woman in a coma, while Loïk Le Priol was driving drunk. And, in February 2015, they had already violently attacked two partygoers who had climbed into Loïk Le Priol’s jeep while leaving a nightclub.
These acts of violence had already had serious consequences on the careers of the two friends: decorated member of the special forces, Loïk Le Priol was removed from the army in 2017 after hospitalization for psychological disorders and a few months after being implicated in an attack against an Ethiopian woman, in Djibouti. A former student at the University of Assas, Romain Bouvier intended to become a lawyer.
The bloody epilogue of a drunken argument
Their relationships were at the heart of the debates which took place in the Voltaire room of the courthouse. Romain Bouvier spoke this week of “a great, almost fraternal, friendly bond”. A friendship deemed “toxic” by his former friend before this same court.
The two main defendants ignored each other in the cubicle they shared, often remaining with their heads down when not taking notes. On the benches in the room were many supporters of the victim’s family.
Loïk Le Priol was the first to be able to express his regrets to the relatives of Federico Aramburu, who was the father of three children. On March 19, 2022, he shot the victim six times. “I will never stop asking for forgiveness,” he declared at the opening of the trial on September 7, after admitting to being responsible for his death.
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Psychiatrist experts noted last week the “obvious psychopathic traits” of Loïk Le Priol, his tendency to pose as a victim and avoid his responsibilities.
During the trial, he minimized his ultra-right commitment and denied being racist. Including confronted with the images found on his phone, such as photos of the “George Floyd Challenge”, a popular challenge in white supremacist circles consisting of reenacting the death of this black American suffocated by a police officer, or this photomontage showing Marine Le Pen holding a sign “Happy Ramadan les bougnoules”. Loïk Le Priol explained that he belonged to numerous groups on social networks without endorsing their content.
Ten bullets fired, one unarmed victim
A weapons collector, Romain Bouvier also belonged to the Parisian ultra-right movement. He was questioned about the presence, in his apartment, of a copy of “Mein Kampf” dating from 1933 and other works described as “sulphurous” by the president of the court. A Hitler figurine was also found. The accused replied that political books did not represent “even 5% of my library”, specifying that he had volumes “linked to the extreme left” as well as “on Nazism and fascism”.
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Brilliant in moot court competitions during his law studies, he expressed himself with great ease before the court, in a sometimes sophisticated language. He thus speaks of a “verbal altercation” on the terrace of the Le Mabillon brasserie and remembers being “taken aback” when he saw Federico Aramburu make Loïk Le Priol fall, a gesture which triggered the first fight.
The belligerents are separated and tension falls on the terrace after the departure of the former rugby players. Romain Bouvier claimed to have learned a few minutes later that they were “massacring” his friend Loïk Le Priol a little further away on Boulevard Saint-Germain. He then boarded the military jeep parked in front of the restaurant, with the aim, according to him, of finding the man he imagines “lying and panting”.
Sitting behind the wheel, Lyson Rochemir only had to go a hundred meters before seeing Shaun Hegarty and Federico Aramburu. They walk and Loïk Le Priol is not on the scene. After the jeep stopped, a heated discussion began with Federico Aramburu. Romain Bouvier got out of the vehicle with a loaded pistol on him. He assured that he had gotten into the habit of going out armed because he had “heard of threats from Édouard Klein’s father”.
As images filmed by surveillance cameras show, he found himself facing Federico Aramburu, unarmed, in the middle of Boulevard Saint-Germain. He shot him four times, hitting him twice. Two shots which, according to the forensic experts summoned by the courts, could have proved lethal.
“The goal was to aim at the ground,” guaranteed the accused, although he was experienced in handling weapons and a fan of shooting sessions. Romain Bouvier then spoke of panic and anxiety, a “tunnel effect” which made him lose his means and his lucidity. “I didn’t want to do what I did,” he said with sobs in his voice, saying he felt “immense guilt”.
Loïk Le Priol ran to the jeep around 6:10 a.m. after hearing the shots. A new fight started with Federico Aramburu. It turned to the advantage of the man who had just been hit by two bullets. “I received blows, I was cornered. Broken nose, broken teeth. What should I do?” Loïk Le Priol asked in court. His response was to take out the gun he had on his belt and fire out of “pure military reflex.” He emptied all six bullets from his barrel. According to forensic doctors, the last two were fatal, shot in the victim’s back.
With AFP
