Killer Fourniret leaves Belgium for France trial

9 January 2006

BRUSSELS – Serial killer Michel Fourniret was extradited on Monday to France to face trial for the murders of seven young women.

The Frenchman has been held in Vorst in Belgium since his arrest in June 2003. Last year, Belgian and French authorities agreed to stage a joint trial, conducted in France since most of the murders took place there.

His wife Monique Olivier, who was extradited to France in December, will stand trial with him on charges of assisting in some of his crimes.

On Monday, at around 11am, two unmarked Belgian police cars drove to Brûly, the former border control with France. Fourniret, who was in one of the cars, was formally extradited to France, under the terms of a court order, signed by justice minister Laurette Onkelinx.

The self-confessed killer was accompanied by Dinant’s public prosecutor, Arnould d’Aspremont Lynden, and by the head of the Dinant investigation into the case, Jacques Fagnard.

The Belgians were met at the border by the French team that has been investigating Fourniret’s crimes: prosecutor Francis Nachbar and investigating judges Devigne and Trebaubert.

After his extradition Fourniret was taken to the Palace of Justice in Charleville-Mezieres where he was formally charged for the murders of six French women and Belgian Elisabeth Brichet, between 1987 and 2001.

Until his trial, Fourniret will be kept in prison at Chalons-en-Champagne in Champagne-Ardenne.

The 63-year-old Frenchman’s trial is scheduled to take place this spring at Charleville-Mezieres.

However, the inquiries into Fourniret’s crimes are far from over. Fourniret is suspected of at least another six murders.

Subject: Belgian news