Words are weighed.
Imbued with emotions but measured, like a dignified family that still believes in the work of the police and justice, they are lying on a letter sent a few days ago to Emmanuel Macron.
In this letter, there emerges the hope of seeing a killer answer for his actions.
“On April 27, 2011, my life, that of my family and our daughter changed, writes the widow of Jean Meyer to the President of the Republic.
We were going to experience the unthinkable, but we did not know then that it would last to this day.
"
The unthinkable is this horror scene summed up by the PJ police officers in a summary of the investigation: “On April 27 around 7:50 am, Jean Meyer, 35-year-old air traffic controller, was found dead, stabbed at seven. times in a secure administrative building giving access to the control tower of Basel - Mulhouse airport. "
Investigators do not take long to identify a suspect: Karim Ouali, a colleague of Jean Meyer on sick leave for several months. The day before the murder, Ouali posted threatening letters to other colleagues. He also wrote a long hallucinated manuscript called "Avataroh". He evokes "the life of air traffic controllers, religion, hell, the devil, the end of the world". But behind this man on the edge of madness, fascinated by Osama bin Laden and the character of the Joker, hides a man who "showed great care in the preparation of the facts of homicide and his flight", according to the journalists. police officers.
In fact, Ouali has always been one step ahead.
Before assassinating Jean Meyer for no reason - according to several sources, Ouali could have wanted to access the control tower to commit an attack targeting planes - the fugitive, for example, bought a ticket on a flight that he would not take. never.
To disrupt his hunt, he also sent a phone to Switzerland bought in his name, or rented a car that he will never use.
A few months after the murder, the investigators face the facts: Karim Ouali is nowhere to be found.
His photo discovered on a dating site
Karim Ouali's profile as found on a Hong Kong dating site.
Seven years later, the first twist.
The French police are informed that the suspect was arrested and imprisoned for a month in Hong Kong in 2014. He was even placed under judicial control by the local authorities until 2016. “Despite the existence of an international arrest warrant , the French authorities were only informed of these events in 2018 ”, deplores the Meyer family in their letter to President Macron.
In February 2021, a new lead: the photo of Karim Ouali was discovered by the police from the National Fugitive Search Brigade (BNRF) on “Loveawakae.com”, a popular dating site for the inhabitants of Hong Kong.
The searches of the French police officers even make it possible to house with precision the fugitive of 45 years, targeted by a red notice of Interpol.
Since then, requests for mutual assistance addressed to Hong Kong by the prosecutor of Mulhouse, Edwige Roux-Morizot, have not succeeded. The local authorities believe that the website on which Ouali was spotted is not hosted on their soil and that they therefore do not have to carry out investigations. “Jean died in appalling conditions, laments the Meyer family in their letter to Emmanuel Macron. We have lived all these years without knowing where his killer was and if he could ever answer for his actions. Today, 10 years after the tragedy, justice can be done. "
However, the situation is today blocked.
"The exchanges are non-existent" between Hong Kong and the Mulhouse justice, confirms Edwige Roux-Morizot.
“The French state is not reacting, denounces the Meyer family.
(…) We now live with the terrible suffering of knowing that the murderer lives in peace in a country where, for reasons that are not for us to judge, he is in no way worried.
"
Tense diplomatic relations
This inability to bring Karim Ouali back to judge him in France finds, according to several sources, its explanations in the diplomatic tensions which plague relations between France and Hong Kong. In August 2020, as protests in Hong Kong were violently suppressed, France chose to suspend ratification of an extradition agreement with the Chinese enclave. Since then, Hong Kong has refused any collaboration with France. An incomprehensible situation for those close to Jean Meyer and their lawyer, Me Damien Legrand.
“France does not protect criminals;
I do not want to and cannot believe it, thunders the family of the air traffic controller in their letter sent to the Head of State.
I cannot resign myself to accepting that my husband's murderer will not be extradited and sentenced due to strained diplomatic relations.
This injustice is unacceptable.
It is in this process that I ask you, Mr. President, to do everything possible to facilitate and accelerate this extradition so that justice can be done to my husband, our child and our family.
"Contacted, the Elysee confirms having received the mail and" will give it all the necessary attention ".
