France minister vows new immigration ‘rules’

PARIS — France’s conservative interior minister on Wednesday vowed consequences after a Moroccan man suspected of murdering a 19-year-old university student and leaving her body in a Paris forest was arrested in Switzerland.

A source close to the case, speaking to AFP, identified the alleged attacker as a 22-year-old man of Moroccan nationality. Prosecutors have said the suspect had been previously convicted of rape and had been the subject of an order to leave France.

The killing of the student is expected to further inflame political tensions in France where the newly installed right-wing government plans to crack down on immigration.

“This is an abominable crime,” said Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau.

Retailleau, who on Monday took over from his predecessor Gerald Darmanin, has vowed to boost law and order, tighten immigration legislation and make it easier to deport foreigners convicted of crimes.

“It is up to us, as public leaders, to refuse to accept the inevitable and to develop our legal arsenal, to protect the French,” he added.

“If we have to change the rules, let’s change them.”

On Saturday, the body of a student was discovered in the Bois de Boulogne park in western Paris, not far from the Universite Paris-Dauphine she attended.

Authorities have only released the first name of the victim, Philippine.

A Moroccan national was arrested on Tuesday in the Swiss canton of Geneva and was identified as a suspect in a murder committed in Paris, a spokeswoman for the Swiss justice ministry told AFP.

“The Federal Office of Justice then ordered detention for extradition purposes on the basis of an arrest request from France,” she added.

The student had last been seen at the university on Friday.

Witnesses had reported seeing a man with a pickaxe, said one police source.

According to the prosecutors, in 2021 the man was convicted of rape committed in 2019, when he was a minor.

He had been released in June having serving out his sentence, then placed in an administrative detention centre, according to the source close to the case.

In early September, a judge freed him on condition he reported regularly to the authorities.

But just before the murder of the student, the suspect had been placed on a wanted list because he had flouted the conditions of his release.

The killing of the student has sparked outrage in the country, with both the far right and left-wing politicians urging tough measures.

“Philippine’s life was stolen from her by a Moroccan migrant who was under a removal order,” Jordan Bardella, the leader of the far-right RN, the largest single party in parliament, said on X Tuesday evening.

“Our justice system is lax, our state is dysfunctional and our leaders are letting the French live alongside human bombs,” he added.

“It’s time for this government to act: our compatriots are angry and will not mince words.”

Former socialist president Francois Hollande also chimed in, saying deportation orders had to be enforced “quickly”.

France routinely issues deportation orders known under the French abbreviation OQTF, but only around seven percent of them are enforced, compared to 30 per cent across the European Union.