Taha O., the main suspect in Philippine’s murder, detained in Switzerland, was accused in Paris, on Wednesday, November 6, by an investigating judge, of “murder accompanied by another crime”, which makes him “incur life imprisonment”declared the Paris prosecutor’s office to Agence France-Presse.
Also accused of repeated rape, this 22-year-old Moroccan citizen is currently before a liberty and detention judge who must decide whether or not to grant him preventive detention. According to the prosecution, Taha O. is also being prosecuted for repeated fraud for acts committed in Montreuil.
He was extradited on Wednesday from Switzerland, where he had fled after the discovery of the Philippine body. The 19-year-old Paris-Dauphine University student was found buried in the Bois de Boulogne, west of Paris, on September 21. In the process, a judicial investigation for rape and homicide was opened.
“A heinous crime”
Taha O. was arrested at Geneva’s main train station on September 24. A few days later, France submitted an extradition request, but the suspect initially refused to be extradited. “My client made his decision after understanding the ins and outs of the extradition procedure. (…). “It’s an informed choice on your part.”his lawyer, M., had stressed.my Florence Yersin.
The suspect had already been convicted in 2021 for rape and then released in June 2024. “at the end of the sentence”according to the Paris prosecutor’s office. He was then placed in an administrative detention center in Metz. Upon his release, he was placed under house arrest in a hotel in Yonne, where he had never been. By failing to comply with his obligation to report, he was included in the wanted persons file the day before the murder, on September 19.
He was forced to leave the territory, which provoked strong reactions, especially from the extreme right, and a virulent public debate. The Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, also urged “develop our legal arsenal”on September 25, the day after his arrest. Emmanuel Macron had expressed “the excitement of the entire nation” after a “heinous crime” and I felt it was necessary “protect the French better every day”.
