Nicolas Zepeda was indicted for murder and placed in pre-trial detention Friday after a debate before the judge of freedoms and detention. He is suspected of having murdered his Japanese ex-girlfriend Narumi Kurosaki in 2016 in Besançon. Extradited Thursday by Chile, Zepeda has always denied having killed the young woman, who disappeared from the university city of Bisont where she resided in December 2016. Her body has never been found.

Nicolas Zepeda, suspected of having killed his Japanese ex-girlfriend Narumi Kurosaki in 2016 in Besançon and extradited Thursday by Chile, was indicted for murder on Friday and remanded in custody. During the hearing before the judge of freedoms and detention (JLD), the 29-year-old Chilean once again proclaimed his innocence. His lawyer, Me Jacqueline Laffont, who notably defended Nicolas Sarkozy in the past, asked that his client could be placed under judicial supervision in an AirBnB apartment in Paris rented by his father, a telecoms magnate.

"I undertake to attend all invitations" 

"I am on French territory and I undertake to attend all summons," he said, speaking calmly at the bar. "I have never committed violence or exerted any pressure on anyone and I am committed to ensuring that it continues." "He had the means to leave Chile, he never did," said his lawyer. He stayed there, he attended all the hearings. When his extradition was pronounced, he went. pointed in, he waited and today he's here. If there had been a risk of absconding, he would have taken it. We have accommodation, you can get his passports and his father offers to post a bond. "

But the Besançon prosecutor, Etienne Manteaux, considered this proposal very insufficient: "the elements directly implicating Mr. Zepeda in the assassination of Narumi Kurosaki are overwhelming", he recalled.