BUENOS AIRES (AFP) ? Authorities have arrested a man in connection with the murder of two French women who were found shot to death in a tourist area in northern Argentina, provincial police told AFP Monday.
The women's bodies were found Friday by hikers on a trail in an area overlooking Salta, the capital of a northern province of the same name.
"At 2:00 am (0500 GMT Monday) this morning we detained a person, a middle aged man, for his presumed implication in these acts," police officer Jose Hinojosa said.
Hinojosa said the man was a resident of Salta, but his identity and nationality were being withheld, he said.
The man was identified as Francisco Ariel Tejada by his wife, Doming Gonzalez, who was quoted on the Internet site of El Tribuno de Salta as saying her husband was innocent and was "grabbed because he is poor."
She said Tejada, 43, who rents horses to tourists for a living, had not been away from home or work for long periods of time in recent days.
"This person's detention has to do with a prior investigation and the judge will continue taking steps to confirm or not the hypothesis they are working on," said Pablo Kosiner, a senior provincial official.
French consul general Patrick Flot traveled to Salta on Monday to confer with local authorities, including Salta governor Juan Manuel Uturbey, a French embassy source said.
Argentina "is appalled by the terrible crime," Foreign Minister Hector Timerman said in a letter to his French counterpart Alain Juppe on Monday. He added that authorities are "working hard on the case."
The victims -- Houria Moumni, 24, and Cassandre Bouvier, 29 -- were "brilliant students" of Latin American studies at the Sorbonne, the university's president Marie-Christine Lemardeley said.
They were believed to have been killed between Tuesday and Friday after going on a hike in the rocky trails that offer panoramic views of Salta, the provincial capital 1,600 kilometers north of Buenos Aires.
One of the woman was shot in the head and apparently sexually abused. The other was shot in the back.
The two women arrived in Salta by bus from Buenos Aires on July 11, and were scheduled to return on July 19.
They entered the San Lorenzo Gorge on July 15, according to a park registry. But they were believed to have been killed sometime between Tuesday July 26 and Thursday July 28, raising the possibility that they may have been held captive for several days.
On Sunday, the French foreign ministry expressed "complete confidence in the Argentine authorities... to shed light on these murders so the perpetrators can be identified and tried."
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.