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The most wanted Frenchman by Europol arrested in Spain after 4 years of stalking

2021-01-21T16:04:27.867Z


Sentenced in his absence to ten years in prison for the rape of an octogenarian in Saint-Etienne, François Di Pasquali was arrested on Wednesday 2


His round face and bald head were displayed last October on the Europol site.

These two words were then enthroned above: “Most Wanted”.

The most wanted fugitive in France, François Di Pasquali, 48, was arrested Wednesday evening in the suburbs of Barcelona during an operation coordinated by the National Fugitive Search Brigade (BNRF).

He is the first Frenchman registered on Europol's “Most Wanted” list to be arrested.

The rape of an octogenarian in 2009

In 2009, an 84-year-old woman with Alzheimer's disease got lost in the streets of Saint-Etienne.

François Di Pasquali approaches her and offers to take her home, a few kilometers from the city center.

Once at home, the octogenarian is raped, but she has no precise memory allowing her attacker to be identified.

Semen was found on a napkin, however, but the DNA collected was not on the National DNA File (FNAEG).

Three years later, Frenchman Di Pasquali is caught by the courts.

In April 2012, he tried to run over his wife with his car and was sentenced to 18 months suspended prison sentence.

His DNA is then taken and matches that extracted from the towel found in the octogenarian.

Di Pasquali, indicted for rape and placed in detention, denies the facts and explains that he simply responded to the advances of the elderly woman.

Absent from his trial

After six months in prison, the forties regained freedom in January 2013. He works in a restaurant in Saint-Etienne, strictly respects his judicial control and does not make people talk about him despite "his very disturbing profile".

In June 2016, Di Pasquali must finally be tried by the Assize Court of Saint-Etienne.

A few days before the trial, he fled and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

For years, research is not really active and the forties have quiet days.

"He did not have the traditional roots of thugs on the run which made his stalking less conventional," notes the boss of the BNRF, Commissioner Jacques Croly-Labourdette.

In the absence of informers ready to swing it in the middle, former associates scorned, the investigators of the BNRF, seized at the beginning of the year 2020, therefore decide to focus on the relatives of the forty-something.

The police are therefore convinced that Di Pasquali has maintained contacts in the Saint-Etienne region.

The investigation is difficult, the relatives of the fugitive very discreet and cautious.

Tracking specialists learn some interesting details, however.

Of Sicilian origin, Di Pasquali has connections capable of accommodating him in Italy.

Another clue: his companion is of Spanish origin and could have provided various drop-off points for the fugitive on the other side of the Pyrenees.

A false identity

For weeks, the relatives of François Di Pasquali are monitored in France, Italy and Spain.

But the forty-something cannot be found.

Finally, on Wednesday January 20 in the morning, the BNRF police officers take action and search four potential drop points of the fugitive in the Saint-Etienne region.

Di Pasquali is not there, but the searches are successful.

Traces of exchanges between the fugitive and one of his relatives are discovered.

Examination of this correspondence suggests that the forty-something recently stayed in an apartment in the suburbs of Barcelona.

We must go quickly and prevent the fugitive from flying away again.

European collaboration is effective, and a few minutes after the discovery of the French police, their Spanish counterparts take refuge in front of a building in the suburbs of Barcelona.

Hours go by and nothing moves.

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At around 8 p.m., a man came out of the building.

Di Pasquali wears a Covid mask, gained a few pounds, but has hardly changed.

He presents an Italian passport with a false identity, then quickly recognizes that he is the fugitive sought by France.

François Di Pasquali must be presented this Thursday before the Spanish courts in Madrid and should quickly be extradited for a new trial.

Source: leparis

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