He is suspected of having killed his 19-year-old girlfriend in early November.

This 23-year-old man was indicted for "spousal homicide" and imprisoned in a cell of the hospital unit of a penitentiary center, we learned, this Monday, from the prosecutor, the day after a white march in tribute to the victim.

This young man, of Afghan origin or nationality according to a police source, was arrested just after the incident, on the evening of November 9, in his apartment in Ronchin, near Lille.

He was quickly hospitalized.

The young woman, Hélana, had been stabbed to death.

"We never thought he could be violent"

Sunday, some 200 people, equipped with white roses, white balloons, and T-shirts flocked with the smiling face of Hélana, marched in silence in her homage, between the town hall of Villeneuve-d'Ascq and the building where she lived with her parents.

"Hélana, 19, 111th feminicide [since the start of the year]", was written on the sign carried at the head of the procession by her family.



Hélana "loved life, lived for her studies", in second year at the National School of Architecture and Landscape in Lille, testified her father, David Vansteenkiste, to AFP, expressing his incomprehension.

“Her boyfriend, I knew him.

You never thought he could be violent, he said.

She was in love, it was her first boyfriend, they had in mind to open a company, had asked him a week off to leave with her for Christmas.

It's impossible to know what went through his head."

On the evening of the tragedy, Hélana called him, "in her last breath".

“She didn't even speak, I heard her breathing, that's all.

Immediately, I called him, and he said to me: "I killed your daughter", "he said.

When the police arrived, whom he had warned, the alleged perpetrator was covered in blood, according to the same police source.

Company

Flags at half mast, white banners… Paris commemorates the victims of feminicide

Miscellaneous facts

Orne: “Considerable” means to try to find a body 33 years after a feminicide

  • Justice

  • Femicide

  • Jail

  • Lille

  • Hauts-de-France

  • Violence against women