Youcef, Assia’s husband, whose body was found dismembered in Buttes-Chaumont Park, was indicted for spousal murder on Saturday February 25. The day before, he had confessed to having killed his wife.
[Mis à jour le 26 février 2023 à 11h22] Saturday February 25, the husband of Assia, whose body had been discovered cut in the Buttes-Chaumont park in Paris, was indicted and imprisoned for murder of a spouse. The 50-year-old man is suspected of having strangled his 46-year-old wife in his apartment in Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis), reports The Parisian. He would then have cut up his body to hide it in the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, in Paris. It was discovered on February 13 by park pruners. Assia, who was identified through her fingerprints, had been missing since January 31, but her husband did not report her missing until a few days later.
Youcef’s police custody, which began on Thursday February 23, was extended on Friday as part of an open judicial investigation for “murder, attack on the integrity of a corpse and concealment of a corpse”. At Parisian, the man’s lawyer says that his client did not want to kill his wife: “There was no violence in the couple. My client has always denied having intended to kill his wife”, assures master Dominique Beyreuther-Minkov. For his part, the husband affirms that the murder occurred during an argument on “background of old conflict of couple and family”.
After the discovery of Assia’s body, investigators quickly noted her husband’s inconsistencies. He took several days to report the disappearance of his wife and indicated that she had left their apartment on a date which turned out to be false. Youcef had also told the police that he had been looking for his wife, which was not true, reports BFM-TV. The husband had also bought a new cell phone the day before Assia disappeared, although it has not been found. A few days before her death, Assia had confided to her sister that she had the feeling that she was “going to die soon”.
A body found in several pieces in the Buttes-Chaumont park
The macabre discovery took place in the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, located in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, on Monday February 13. That day, the pruners found, around 2:30 p.m., in a remote grove, a garbage bag. Inside it, they discovered a human trunk that went “from the top of the chest to the knees”, according to a source from the Parisian. The bag was discovered in a corner out of sight, near the green waste warehouse, south of the park, on the rue Botzaris side. The human remains were bloodied and dressed “as if surrounded by jeans”. A detail that made investigators say that the body was “cut dressed”, according to The Parisian, who contacted a source familiar with the matter.
A search had been organized in the Buttes-Chaumont park a few hours after the discovery with dog brigades, in order to find other parts of the body. Tuesday, February 14, other members, such as the victim’s head and the rest of the body, were found near the disused railway line adjacent to the park. Assia was later identified with the analysis of fingerprints taken from her corpse, reports France info.
The victim was identified on Wednesday February 15. This is Assia, a 46-year-old woman of Algerian origin and mother of three children, according to information from BFM TV. She had no job and lived with her husband, also unemployed, in a building in Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis), according to a source close to the investigation contacted by franceinfowhich also indicates that the couple was not known to the police.
Youcef, Assia’s husband, finally confessed to being behind the murder of his wife this Friday, February 24, according to information from the Parisian, after being taken into custody the day before. The suspicions of the investigators quickly fell on Assia’s husband, after they heard him on February 14 during a free hearing. Indeed, several inconsistencies had appeared in their eyes, in particular by cross-checking his remarks made during this hearing with those made, on February 15, by Youcef during an interview on RTL.
During his hearing, Assia’s husband had indeed indicated that she had left the family home on the night of January 30 to 31, according to information from BFM TV. Interviewed by RTL, he had indicated that she had then left the family home to take public transport. The husband then explained on the radio that he had not asked her exactly where she intended to go, but that she used to go to clearance sales to buy clothes which she then resold to individuals. . He told RTL that he realized her disappearance on the evening of the 31st, noting that she was not returning to the family home. However, the investigators then learned, during their hearings of people around the couple, that Assia rarely left her home, reports The Parisian.
But it is above all the time taken by Youcef to report the disappearance of his wife who put the flea in the ear of the investigators. Indeed, it was only on February 6 that the husband ended up going to a police station to report his disappearance, a week after noticing his wife’s absence. The husband had initially explained to the investigators that he had taken so much time because he was “overwhelmed by events”, as reported by BFMTV.
In addition, no CCTV cameras showed that she left the building where the family apartment was located on the night of January 30 to 31, as he had indicated to investigators, the channel said. ‘information. The Parisian further reports that the investigators were able to determine that Youcef had not gone to Paris in order to look for his wife, as he had claimed, nor had he made numerous phone calls to his wife. woman to try to find her.