Husband of woman found dismembered in Paris park charged with murder

A man who has admitted to killing his wife whose dismembered remains were found in a Paris park was charged Saturday with spousal murder, his lawyer and prosecutors said.

Published: 26 February 2023 09:19 CET

Husband of woman found dismembered in Paris park charged with murder

Photo: Jean-Christophe Verhaegen/AFP

The man from Montreuil, just east of central Paris, denied having wanted her dead, his lawyer Dominique Beyreuther-Minkov told reporters. Detained by police since Thursday morning, the man reported his wife to police as missing on February 3, the lawyer said.

He had been posting about her disappearance on social media since January 31.

French news channel BFMTV reported last week that police were suspicious about inconsistencies in the husband’s story.

On February 13, park workers discovered a plastic bag containing her lower torso and thighs in the Buttes-Chaumont park in northeast Paris, a popular spot for picnicking families and joggers.

Further remains including the woman’s head were found in a search the following day, and later identified using fingerprints.

Police had opened a probe for murder, tampering with a corpse and concealing a corpse on February 17.

But in light of the man’s statements, investigators in the case have re-evaluated and believe the act was not premeditated.

“My client, who is distraught, has humanly explained as much as he could,” Beyreuther-Minkov said, adding the couple were married for 26 years and had three children.

“All the family is in shock and in a complete state of bewilderment,” Antoine Ory, lawyer for the victim’s family and children, told AFP.

The number of femicides in France increased by 20 percent in 2021 compared to the previous year, with 122 women killed by a spouse or ex-spouse, according to interior ministry figures.

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The French Jewish community, the third largest in the world, has for months been on edge in the face of a growing number of attacks and desecrations of memorials.

“National police in Rouen neutralised early this morning an armed individual who clearly wanted to set fire to the city’s synagogue,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Police responded at 6.45 am to reports of “fire near the synagogue”, a police source said.

A source close to the case told AFP the man “was armed with a knife and an iron bar, he approached police, who fired. The individual died”.

“It is not only the Jewish community that is affected. It is the entire city of Rouen that is bruised and in shock,” Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol wrote on X.

He made clear there were no other victims other than the attacker.

Two separate investigations have been opened, one into the fire at the synagogue and another into the circumstances of the death of the individual killed by the police, Rouen prosecutors said.

Such an investigation by France’s police inspectorate general is automatic whenever an individual is killed by the police.

The man threatened a police officer with a knife and the latter used his service weapon, said the Rouen prosecutor.

The dead man was not immediately identified, a police source said.

Asked by AFP, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office said that it is currently assessing whether it will take up the case.

France has the largest Jewish community of any country after Israel and the United States, as well as Europe’s largest Muslim community.

There have been tensions in France in the wake of the October 7th attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel, followed by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Red hand graffiti was painted onto France’s Holocaust Memorial earlier this week, prompted anger including from President Emmanuel Macron who condemned “odious anti-Semitism”.

“Attempting to burn a synagogue is an attempt to intimidate all Jews. Once again, there is an attempt to impose a climate of terror on the Jews of our country. Combating anti-Semitism means defending the Republic,” Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF). wrote on X.

France was hit from 2015 by a spate of Islamist attacks that also hit Jewish targets. There have been isolated attacks in recent months and France’s security alert remains at its highest level.