His lawyer told The Associated Press that he now faces renewed questioning by an investigating magistrate who specializes in so-called cold cases — those that have proved particularly hard to resolve.
The rape and murder cases date back to the s. One involves Sophie Narme, a property agent who was killed in Paris on Dec. The other is the attempted armed rape of another property agent in the Paris suburb of Villeparisis on May 11, Lawyer Florence Rault, who represents Narme's family and the woman subjected to the rape attempt, said an array of similarities between the and cases suggested the perpetrator might be the same. Perhaps someone else committed the crime on Sophie Narme.
But there are such similarities in the mode of operation, in the way the victims were approached — and the victims are so identical, too — that one can legitimately ask many questions," Rault said on RTL radio.
The two cases were grouped together into one investigation in September that was taken over by the specialized unit for cold cases and serial crimes. It works out of the Paris suburb of Nanterre. She noted that he had previously been questioned in and had acknowledged having been in contact with the property agent in the case, but not with Narme. The lawyer said police found traces of his DNA at the scene of their meeting.
She described his conditions in solitary confinement, and said he has not been allowed visitors since He is not complaining — he knows it was imposed on him based on the nature of the facts. He won't be eligible to request early release until he's served at least two-thirds of his year sentence, which was the maximum possible for the rapes and other crimes he was convicted of.
