Seven people suspected of being involved in the murder of a man during the Bayonne Festival at the end of July were placed under arrest warrant before their presentation before an investigating judge, the Bayonne prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday in a communicated.
Six men, aged 21 to 27, and “some of whom are already known to the judicial authorities”, and a 33-year-old woman were arrested on Tuesday in Essonne and in Loire-Atlantique, Tuesday “as part of a large-scale judicial police operation, mobilizing a staff of 200 police officers, including 140 investigators.”
Warrants of bringing
At the end of their custody, arrest warrants were issued against all of the suspects, a procedure applicable to people questioned more than 200 km from the investigating magistrate, with a view to their transfer, added Bayonne prosecutor Jérôme Bourrier.
On July 26, during the first evening of the festivities, three young men beat up Patrice Lanies, 46, who made a comment to them after catching them urinating in front of his door. Patrice Lanies died of traumatic brain injury after being kept in an artificial coma for nine days.
Investigators released a sketch of the attackers after the incident, describing them as individuals aged 20 to 25, of athletic build, and bare-chested at the time of the attack.