Chadian president's son murdered in Paris region 02/07/2007 00:00

PARIS, July 2, 2007 (AFP) - The son of Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno, Brahim, once seen as a possible successor, was found murdered Monday in the car park of his apartment in the Paris region, sources close to the investigation said.

The body of Brahim Deby, 27, was discovered in the early morning by a security guard in the underground parking of the building in the western Paris suburb of Courbevoie.

He had suffered a headwound and a fire extinguisher was found near the body, sources said.

Prosecutors believe Deby was the victim of a murder but were awaiting results of an autopsy.

The son of the president was convicted in June last year on charges of drug and weapon possession after he was detained outside a Paris nightclub carrying a handgun.

During a search of his home, police found 250 grammes of marijuana and two grammes of cocaine, and he was given a six-month suspended jail sentence.

Following the arrest, the Chadian president signed a decree stripping his son of his post as a technical adviser and he was then widely seen as having fallen out of favour with his father.

A Chadian diplomatic source in Paris said he did not believe that the murder was politically motivated.  He added that the Chadian ambassador in Paris had informed the president of his son's death.

President Idriss Deby Itno, who has been in power in Chad since 1990, was re-elected in May 2006 to a new term.

After surviving a coup attempt in 2004, the president has been struggling with a string of defections that have bolstered the ranks of rebels fighting his regime. Deby claims they are being armed by the Sudanese government in Khartoum.

Now ill, Deby has also been weakened by a row with the World Bank in Washington over management of petrodollars.

The French foreign ministry separately offered condolences to the family and said judicial authorities were looking into the circumstances of the death.

Copyright AFP

Subject: French news