Fourniret refuses to assist murder reconstruction

29 June 2005

BRUSSELS — Confessed serial killer Michel Fourniret has refused to help Belgian police reconstruct the murder of a teenage girl.

As police re-enacted the crime on Tuesday, the Frenchman stayed in the armoured Mercedes vehicle used to bring him from Brussels prison cell to the southern Belgian town of Gedinne.

“He doesn’t think the time is right,” a Belgian prosecutor from the nearby town of Dinant said.

Fourniret, 63, admitted in July last year to killing 18-year-old student Celine Saison. She was abducted on 16 May 2000 as she left her school in Charleville-Mezieres, in northeast France. Her body was dumped in the forests around Sugny, Belgium.

Tuesday’s re-enactment was based on Fourniret’s confession. An investigator used a dummy to reconstruct the abduction, rape and strangling of the girl in Fourniret’s white van.

The reconstruction took place according to French regulations, meaning the girl’s family and their lawyer was present. Fourniret’s lawyers were also present, newspaper ‘De Standaard’ reported.

The Belgian and French prosecutors said the reconstruction “helped to corroborate” Fourniret’s declarations, despite the fact it took place in Belgium.

Authorities will reconstruct the kidnapping of Mananya Thumpong on Wednesday. Fourniret is expected to be taken to Gedinne, in case he changes his mind and wants to assist police efforts.

Arrested in Belgium in June 2003 on charges of kidnapping and sexual misconduct, Fourniret has admitted eight murders, six of which took place in France and two in Belgium. He has also confessed an attempted killing.

Belgian and French authorities agreed earlier this month to hold just on trial. He is expected to face trial in Charleville, France, in June 2006.

Subject: Belgian news