Since September 7, a Paris courtroom has been hearing testimony in the trial of the murder of Federico Martín Aramburú, an Argentinian rugby star who was allegedly shot and killed outside a restaurant in France’s capital in 2022.
The two men on trial, Loïk Le Priol, 32, and Roman Bouvier, 35, are being charged with murder and attempted murder, respectively. Prosecutors allege the men are former members of a ‘violent’ far-right group, Groupe Union Defense (GUD).
On September 14, Aramburu’s mother testified that his killing came after xenophobic taunts from his would-be killers.
Le Priol and Bouvier’s attorneys argue that they acted in self-defense after a fight broke out at a Paris restaurant which resulted in the shooting death of Aramburú.
According to CCTV footage, an argument between Aramburú’s table of friends and that of Le Priol and Bouvier’s turned physical, and then spilled out into the street.
Prosecutors allege that Bouvier, driven in a car by his girlfriend, 29-year-old Lyson Rochemir, pulled up beside the brawl and opened fire.
Le Priol then opened fire as well, shooting Aramburú several times, killing him. Rochemir and another man, Antony Sorrentino, 37, are also facing charges in the incident.
Argentina’s rugby community has followed the trial closely, highlighting the player’s time with the national team, known as Los Pumas.
Pumas players donned T-shirts reading “Justicia por Fede” (Justice for Fede) whilst warming up for a recent match against Australia, and local rugby clubs, including Aramburú’s old Club Atlético de San Isidro (CASI), also wore the black shirts with the message of justice during a September 14 tournament, according to newspaper La Nación.
Argentina’s Rugby Union also called for justice for the deceased rugger.
CASI released a statement, saying: “This mobilization’s aim is to ensure that, in the face of any attempt to downplay the gravity of what happened, society remembers what is on trial: the murder of a 42-year-old man, a father of three children, whose life was brutally and irreversibly taken from him.”
Cecilia Aramburú, Federico’s mother, and Gonzalo Quesada, the former Pumas coach and player, are among the Argentines who have testified during the trial.
French newspaper Le Monde reported that Cecilia blamed his death on “violent” people, talking about her son’s peaceful upbringing in Argentina. Meanwhile, Quesada is said to have praised Aramburú’s character, mentioning that he was “respectful.”
Aramburú, 42, and his wife had three children together. The family lived in Biarritz, France, where Aramburú worked for a tourism agency alongside Shaun Hegarty, a friend and former rugby player who was with Aramburú the night he was killed.
Aramburú had been retired from rugby for over a decade after a professional career in Europe with teams like Biarritz, Dax, Perpignan, and Glasgow.
Born in La Plata, Buenos Aires in 1980, Aramburú was first introduced to rugby through his father, who took him to CASI and enrolled him in the club at 19.
He played for CASI until 2004, when he was offered a professional contract for Biarritz Olympique, taking his career to Europe.
Aramburú made his debut with the Pumas the same year that he moved to Biarritz, playing an international match against Chile.
Playing as a wing and center, he proceeded to earn a total of 22 caps and scored eight tries for his country.
He was also part of the Argentine squad that came in third at the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France, where he scored a try in the team’s pool-stage match against Georgia.
Aramburú’s rugby disciplinary record was clean, according to media reports, and he was generally described as a calm person.
Featured image credit: Federico Martín Aramburú, courtesy of Los Pumas via Facebook.
