A 34-year-old man was indicted and remanded in custody Friday evening in Guyana, this Saturday, June 5 in Paris, for "aggravated murder by a partner" in 2020 on his companion, a 23-year-old Brazilian.
The suspect was arrested on May 31 at his home in Antibes (Alpes-Maritimes) by the Cayenne research section, then transferred to Guyana on Friday, Cayenne prosecutor Samuel Finielz told AFP.
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The victim was found lifeless on the banks of a cove in Cacao about fifty kilometers from Cayenne, on May 15, 2020. Forensic scientists had hypothesized a death by asphyxiation.
"Six to eight weeks pregnant"
In custody in Marseille, the man
“argued about repeated fits of jealousy from his partner.
He claims that during an argument on May 14, 2020 in the afternoon at their home in Cayenne, she would have grabbed a knife.
He would have disarmed her before putting his hand over her mouth, according to him, to prevent her from screaming, ”
said the prosecutor on Friday evening at a press point.
Then
"she fell, he said he realized that she had stopped breathing."
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He says he then put the body in a bag, transported the corpse to Cacao in his vehicle.
He would have liked to burn the body before changing his mind, quickly putting out the start of the fire.
The autopsy showed that the victim was
"six to eight weeks
pregnant
"
, without it being possible to determine who the father was.
A similar previous murder?
The suspect had been the subject of an order of indictment before the assizes of Cayenne in May 2015 for the murder, in 2006, of a young Brazilian woman found dead by asphyxiation in Guyana and whose body had been burned.
One of his lawyers was then Éric Dupond-Moretti, the current Keeper of the Seals.
Following an appeal from the accused, this referral to the assizes was canceled by the Cayenne investigating chamber in September 2015.
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Asked by AFP, the prosecutor indicated that this first case
"is being re-
examined by the
prosecution in the light of the elements of the current procedure, (...) this previous criminal file not being prescribed."