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.
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
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
Popular Stories
More
Life & Aging
Switzerland no longer wants to foot the bill for ‘suicide tourism’
Swiss parliament calls for deeper EU security cooperation
This content was published on
The House of Representatives has called on the Swiss government to take a more proactive approach to European security policy.
Switzerland has no US-style fentanyl problem, says health minister
This content was published on
There is very little chance of a US-sized fentanyl epidemic in Switzerland, says health minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider.
This content was published on
Two fish species recently discovered in Switzerland have been called fluvicola and ommata, following an appeal to the public for names.
Convicted ex-shipowner achieves partial success in Swiss court
This content was published on
The Federal Supreme Court orders lower court to reassess part of its verdict against former Swiss shipowner Hans-Jürg Grunder.
This content was published on
A Swiss moratorium on the genetic engineering of plants, which expires at the end of 2025, could be extended for five years.
SWISS airline achieves second-best profit in history
This content was published on
Revenues soared for Swiss International Air Lines in 2024, contributing to the second-largest profit in the company's history.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.