Nearly three months after the nebulous murder of Moroccan national Achraf Thimoumi, whose body was found in a hidden car in Stoneham-et-Tewkesbury, two men from Lac-Saint-Jean have been charged with first degree murder.
• Also read: Stoneham’s murder victim is a foreigner
• Also read: 20-year-old murdered in Stoneham
Previously arrested in another firearms story, Keven Prévost-Bouchard, 35, of Albanel, emerged straight from Roberval Detention Center to face first-degree murder charges. The second suspect, Éric Guénette, 34, from Normandy, was arrested on Wednesday to face the same charge, the most serious in the criminal code.
The murder is linked to the narcotics world, provincial police said, but did not provide details.
A 20-year-old Moroccan foreigner, Achraf Thimoumi, was found dead on August 8 on the Chemin des Familles in Stoneham, shot and killed.
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His body had been hidden in a car, hidden from view. It was a teenager returning from a bike ride who discovered the bleeding victim. According to witnesses, several shots were heard during the night.
Mr. Thimoumi’s body was transferred to Morocco on August 16. He emigrated to Canada in 2019 to study.
Keven Prévost-Bouchard was arrested along with other accomplices in early September on charges of robbery using a prohibited weapon, threatening to kill and using a firearm for a criminal purpose and discharging the weapon.
Prévost-Bouchard then, for unspecified reasons, went to a chalet with the victim’s son with a 9mm pistol, but during an altercation a bullet was fired without injury. The 9mm gun was reportedly confiscated from the defendant, while a sawed-off .12 caliber rifle was also found.
He returned for his release hearing on Monday, but the decision was deliberated by the judge. The man, who has amassed more than 50 criminal convictions since 2012, had pleaded with the judge that he wanted to get out of the criminal world to take care of his children.
As for Éric Guénette, he seemed very disturbed during the performance. The one who appeared via video conference cried and wiped his eyes during the brief hearing.
He was convicted in 2007 of criminal burglary and trespassing, fraud, theft and driving. After serving his 12-month sentence – and before his court appearance on Thursday – he had never set foot in a courthouse again.
Under the law, both men will be automatically detained unless they request a bail hearing. DPCP prosecutor Me Matthieu Rochette indicated that the two men’s next court appearance, scheduled for December 5, will serve to finalize the disclosure of evidence.
In Montreal’s North African community, shocked by the victim’s violent death at such a young age, news of the arrests was greeted with relief.
“We are very relieved to finally find out, us [a pu] Arresting people linked to this murder means that this murder will not remain unsolved like many others in the past,” points out journalist Rachid Najahi, who helped Achraf Thimoumi’s family transport the body to Morocco.
However, the connection between the crime and narcotics cited by the investigators is surprising.
“In his immediate environment, among his friends, nobody was aware” that the victim could be involved in such an affair, stresses Mr. Najahi, who runs the information site of the Maghreb community Atlas Media.
This twist will no doubt bring some comfort to the deceased’s family who were looking for answers.
“We hope that the truth will come out, that’s all,” her big sister Oumayma Thimoumi told the Journal days after the tragedy. She then said that she had no reason to believe that humans could harm her brother.
– With the collaboration of Jérémy Bernier and Dominique Lelièvre
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