A crime with no apparent motive and brothers who accuse each other: suspected of having poisoned, murdered and butchered a 59-year-old woman at the end of 2017, two men appear from Friday at the assizes of Seine-Saint-Denis.
On December 16, 2017 in the west of Paris, a walker discovered in the Bois de Boulogne, under a pile of dead leaves, a human head. Called on the spot, the police found a little further a body cut into pieces. The victim is identified as Nafia Chaffa, an Algerian singer living in France for a long time, whose disappearance had been reported a few days earlier.
accuse his brother
The investigators quickly direct their investigations towards a friend of the victim, Mustapha Ait Ouaret, Franco-Algerian now 55 years old. In his car and at his home, in Seine-Saint-Denis, the police discovered traces of blood belonging to the victim. Pianist in raï music orchestras, he would have met Nafia Chaffa, singer of chaâbi music, in a professional context, before they became friends. The suspect immediately denies and accuses his younger brother, Salah Ait Ouaret, of the murder.
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After giving several versions of the facts, he explains to the police that the day Nafia Chaffa had given a last sign of life, he, on returning home, surprised his brother washing bloody laundry in the bathroom. To the investigators who remind him that his own blood was identified on the bidet, mixed with that of the victim, he replies that his brother had then hit him and that he was injured.
“Why ? How ?”
For his part, Salah Ait Ouaret, 43 years old today, claims not to know why his brother accuses him. During the investigation, his DNA is identified on a bottle of detergent found by the police at his brother’s house. “My client was trapped by Mustapha Ait Ouaret, he is a scapegoat“, defends to AFP his lawyer, Me Julia Katlama who will plead the acquittal. “He has no motive, barely knew the victim. He lived for several months with his brother long before the facts: it is not surprising that we find a footprint“, she says.
During the investigation, no motive was clearly established. According to the medical examiner, the death of the victim would have occurred two to three days before the autopsy carried out to discover the body. Seven to eight days after Nafia Chaffa gave a sign of life for the last time. If large doses of drugs were detected in his body, the coroner believes, however, that the death is not of toxic origin.
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And if the expertise establishes that the body of Nafia Chaffa was cut using “specific tools», presumably a knife and a saw, these were never found. “Why ? How ? When ? Many questions remain unanswered. And Nafia Chaffa’s relatives hope to finally get answers“, told AFP Romain Boulet, lawyer for the civil parties. The verdict is expected on October 21.
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