The plane on board which was extradited the Chilean Nicolas Zepeda, suspected of having murdered his Japanese ex-girlfriend Narumi Kurosaki in Besançon in 2016, landed at Roissy airport late Friday morning. The young man must now be taken to Besançon where he could be indicted for murder at the end of the day.
Nicolas Zepeda, 29, was "taken in charge by the French authorities" upon the arrival of the Air France flight from Santiago, which landed on the tarmac at Paris-Charles-de-Paris airport on Friday morning. Gaulle, said an airport source.
The body never found
The sole suspect in the assassination of Narumi Kurosaki, whose body has never been found, must be notified of the execution of his international arrest warrant before judicial police investigators take him to Besançon where he will be questioned by the investigating judge in charge of the case. This extradition procedure relaunches a judicial soap opera that has held the Japanese media in suspense for more than three and a half years.
"He will be presented to the examining magistrate with a view to his possible indictment of the murder charge," said the prosecutor of Besançon Etienne Manteaux. "If he is indicted, the prosecution will ask for an adversarial debate to be held for a possible detention."
The Chilean will be defended by Me Jacqueline Laffont, former lawyer of Nicolas Sarkozy. He has always denied having killed the young woman.
"Howls of terror"
Narumi Kurosaki, a 21-year-old student, lived on the Besançon university campus, where she was last seen on December 4, 2016. Nicolas Zepeda, son of a wealthy Chilean family, was her former boyfriend. They met in 2014 in Japan, where he was studying. This son of a telecoms mogul had fallen head over heels in love with her and even introduced her to his family.
According to the investigation, shortly before Narumi's disappearance, the two young people had however distanced themselves and the Japanese student had started a new relationship, arousing the jealousy of Nicolas Zepeda who was then in his country.
Etienne Manteaux went to Chile in April 2019 with an examining magistrate and two investigators. Seven months later, he announced that the investigation was "closed" and justified "the request for extradition of Nicolas Zepeda to appear before the Assize Court of Besançon for the assassination of Narumi Kurosaki".
According to investigators, Nicolas Zepeda went to Besançon in early December 2016 to see the young woman. On the evening of December 4, they returned together to Narumi's accommodation. That night, according to the prosecutor, several students heard "screams of terror, cries". But “no one told the police”.
An "intrusive and disturbing profile"
According to the geolocation of his rental car, on December 6, 2016 at dawn, the suspect went to a wooded area, east of Dole (Jura), where investigators believe he was is rid of the body. A few days earlier, the young man had bought matches and a can of flammable product. Despite extensive research, the body has never been found.
The former prosecutor of Besançon Edwige Roux-Morizot had evoked at the time of the facts an "intrusive and disturbing profile" about the suspect. The latter, in a letter sent to the Chilean authorities, had recounted going to see Narumi in Besançon at the beginning of December 2016 and that they had then "realized that they were still in love". He said he spent part of the night of December 4 to 5 with her, but then said he left alone.
Narumi's family "hope he will have a different line of defense", "find Narumi's body, that's all that matters to them", their lawyer, Sylvie Galley, had declared at the announcement of the extradition of the Chilean in May.
Narumi was a brilliant student from a very modest background. She received a scholarship for her studies at the Applied Linguistic Center (CLA) in Besançon. The CLA has also collected 4,500 euros in donations via an online kitty in order to financially help the family of the young woman to go to France for the trial.
Society
The extradition of Chilean Nicolas Zepeda, claimed by France for murder, is imminent
World
Chile: Extradition on July 23 of man suspected of the disappearance of a Japanese student in Besançon
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