Attorney General files indictment in 1995 diplomat murder case

The Swiss Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has opened criminal proceedings into the 1995 assassination of an Egyptian diplomat in Geneva.

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In November 1995, the former deputy head of the trade office of the Egyptian permanent mission in Geneva was shot dead in a car park in the basement of his building. The OAG opened criminal proceedings at the time, which were suspended in 2009 due to a failure to identify the perpetrators.

On the basis of new evidence, gathered in particular thanks to technological advances, the OAG reopened the proceedings in 2018. It has now filed an indictment with the Federal Criminal Court against a 54-year-old Italian-Ivorian dual national and a 49-year-old Italian-Swiss dual national. The former lives in France, the latter in Geneva.

The 54-year-old is accused of having shot the Egyptian diplomat six times and of having acted with a particular lack of scruples. He was arrested in October 2018 and remanded in custody until May 2020; following an appeal, he was released again the same month. In December 2021, he was again remanded in custody in the context of cantonal proceedings brought on suspicion of rape.

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Subsequently, the OAG took over these proceedings from the canton, as the defendant was already being investigated on suspicion of murder. At this point he was remanded in custody pending indictment. When the indictment was filed, the OAG requested that he be further detained for security reasons.

The 49-year-old was meanwhile indicted by the OAG for complicity in murder. She is accused of having made the silencer used in the crime in collaboration with the defendant.

The Swiss-Italian woman was arrested in November 2018 and remanded in custody until the end of December 2018.

Adapted from French by DeepL/dos

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