A would-be lawyer allegedly linked to a Neo-Nazi group was today charged with the murder of rugby star Federico Aramburu.
Roman Bouvier, 31, was indicted in Paris following the assassination of 42-year-old Aramburu on Saturday night.
The former Argentine international and Glasgow Warriors star was in the French capital to watch France play England in the Six Nations.
He got into an argument in the Mabillon bar, in the upmarket St Germain-des-pres district, and was then targeted by a gunman shooting from a car driven by a woman.
Cameras are then said to have caught Bouvier speeding away from the scene along with Loik Le Priol, a 27-year-old ex-soldier who is also said to have taken part in the killing.
Bouvier was arrested in Sable-sur-Sarthe, a town west of Paris, near Le Mans, on Wednesday.
Police described him as a ‘former law student from Paris’ with ‘strong links to neo-Nazi groups.’
Five shots were aimed at Aramburu, and investigating magistrates believe that Bouvier shot the fatal ones.
‘He was formally indicted with murder on Friday and has been imprisoned,’ said another source close to the case.
The third person in the Jeep was a woman identified as Lison R., 24, and she has been charged with being an accomplice to murder.
Le Priol was arrested in Hungary on Tuesday, when the told police that he was on his way to Ukraine ‘to fight the Russians’, according to investigating sources in Paris.
Three combat knives were found in his car when he was stopped in Zahony – a town on Hungary’s eastern border with Ukraine that is currently full of refugees, following Russia ’s invasion of Ukraine.
Le Priol remains in custody in Hungary, and is due to be extradited to France, where he also faces criminal charges.
Both Bouvier and Le Priol have been linked to the now dissolved Union Defence Group (GUD) in France.
Rallying under the Celtic Cross symbol, the group was linked to neo-Nazi ideas and violent physical attacks on left-wingers.
Aramburu, who lived in the French Basque Country, was with fellow rugby star Shaun Hegarty, 38, when he was killed, but Hegarty was unharmed.
Aramburu’s family have denounced the ‘heinous crime’ and called for police to bring those responsible to justice.
Aramburu won 22 Argentina caps and played in the 2007 World Cup in France, scoring a try as the Pumas beat the hosts in the third-place playoff.
He played club rugby in France for Biarritz, Perpignan and Dax from 2004 to 2010, and for Glasgow Warriors in Scotland..
Since his retirement from sport, he had lived in Biarritz and worked for a tourism company.
