The body of the journalist killed in Ukraine repatriated to France
The remains of journalist Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, killed in Ukraine, arrived overnight from Wednesday to Thursday in France, welcomed by members of his family, relatives and the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul-Malak, noted a photographer for Agence France-Presse.
In front of his coffin draped in black, a moment of contemplation took place on the tarmac of Le Bourget airport, where his body arrived at “just over 3 hours” morning, said journalists from the continuous news channel BFM-TV. Late Wednesday morning, his colleagues from BFM-TV had observed a minute of silence in memory of the journalist killed on May 30 by a shrapnel. A tribute will also be paid to him on Friday at 6:30 p.m. Place de la République in Paris, at the call of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), in particular. His family, friends and colleagues will be present.
The two people who teamed up with Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff in Ukraine for BFM-TV, reporter Maxime Brandstaetter and Ukrainian journalist-translator Oksana Leuta, for their part returned to France on June 3. “His parents came to greet us when we got off the plane, they were the first people I saw and it was not easy”testified on Sunday on BFM-TV, Mr. Brandstaetter, visibly very moved. “I felt that I owed him that, to talk to his parents, to exchange with them, to get closer to them, to feel close, to embrace his mother”, continued the reporter. Oksana Leuta judged “very important that the whole world hears what happened with Frédéric”.
Aged 32, Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff had worked for BFM-TV for six years and was carrying out his second mission there in Ukraine, as an image reporter (JRI).“Frédéric was not a hothead. He weighed every minute of his mission”had declared on the air Marc-Olivier Fogiel, general manager of BFM-TV, just after the announcement of his death.
Read also: The editorial staff of BFM-TV in shock after the death of one of its journalists in Ukraine: “Frédéric was not at all a hothead”