A Moroccan man arrested over the alleged murder of a 19-year-old university student in Paris had been ordered to leave France after serving a sentence for rape, prosecutors have said.
The 22-year-old was detained by police in Geneva and “identified as a suspect in a murder committed in Paris”, according to the Swiss justice ministry.
French prosecutors said the suspect had been convicted of rape in France in 2021 and had been the subject of a removal order after serving his sentence.
The partially buried body of a teenager named by the authorities as Philippine was found by police on Saturday in the Bois de Boulogne park in western Paris, not far from the Université Paris-Dauphine, where she was a student.
The student had last been seen at the university on Friday before disappearing in the woods on the way to visit her parents. Witnesses reported seeing a man with a pickaxe in the area, said one police source.
Philippine’s death has prompted outrage in France, where the country’s new Right-wing interior minister has promised to toughen up laws on deporting foreign criminals.
Bruno Retailleau said on Tuesday he would have no qualms about deporting those who “break into France” without authorisation, as well as fast-tracking the expulsion of foreigners who committed crimes.
Hours later, it emerged that the prime suspect in the student’s alleged murder should not have been in the country.
Mr Retailleau said: “This is an abominable crime. It is up to us, as public leaders, to refuse to accept the inevitable and to develop our legal arsenal, to protect the French.
“If we have to change the rules, let’s change them.”
According to prosecutors, the suspect was convicted in 2021 of a rape committed in 2019, when he was a minor.
He was released in June having served his sentence, then placed in an administrative detention centre, according to a source close to the case.
In early September, a judge freed him on condition he reported regularly to the authorities.
But just before the alleged murder of the student, the suspect was placed on a wanted list because he had broken the conditions of his release.
Politicians on both Right and Left have called for tougher measures in the wake of the alleged murder.
‘Living alongside human bombs’
“Philippine’s life was stolen from her by a Moroccan migrant who was under a removal order,” Jordan Bardella, the leader of the far-Right RN, the largest single party in parliament, wrote on X on Tuesday evening.
“Our justice system is lax, our state is dysfunctional and our leaders are letting the French live alongside human bombs.
“It’s time for this government to act: our compatriots are angry and will not mince words.”
Francois Hollande, the socialist former president, also expressed frustration, saying deportation orders had to be enforced “quickly”.
France issues thousands of deportation orders, known under the French abbreviation OQTF every year, but only around 7 per cent of them are enforced, compared to 30 per cent across the European Union.
However, Gérald Darmanin, the outgoing interior minister, announced in January that the expulsion of “foreign delinquents” had risen by 30 per cent in 2023 compared with the previous year, to a total of 4,686 individuals.
Marie-Laure Basilien-Gainche, an expert in public law, told AFP that French authorities were issuing too many OQTF.
“We are seeing an increase in the number of removal orders issued against people who – we know from the start – cannot return to their country of origin or transit,” she said.
