Four years after former Argentine international rugby player Federico Martin Aramburu was gunned down on a Paris street, a French court has handed down lengthy prison sentences to the two far-right tied men convicted of his killing. The high-profile case, which shocked both the global rugby community and French public, concluded Friday with severe punishment for the attackers whose fatal violence followed a random early-morning bar altercation.
Aramburu, 42 when he was killed in March 2022, built a decades-long rugby career that tied him closely to France. He earned 22 caps for Argentina’s national side, memorably scoring a try against host France during the 2007 Rugby World Cup that helped the Pumas claim a third-place finish. After his international career, he spent multiple seasons playing for French domestic clubs including Perpignan, Biarritz and Dax, before a final stint with Scotland’s Glasgow Warriors starting in 2010. He had remained based in France following his retirement from the sport.
The fatal confrontation unfolded in the early hours of March 19 near Paris’ Boulevard Saint-Germain. CCTV evidence presented during the trial showed Aramburu and his former rugby teammate Shaun Hegarty were seated at a bar across from Loik Le Priol, 32, a discharged French soldier, and 35-year-old Romain Bouvier. At the time of the killing, both defendants were affiliated with a now-disbanded far-right extremist group. A verbal and physical altercation erupted between the two groups, after which Aramburu and Hegarty left the bar to walk back to their nearby hotel.
Rather than letting the confrontation end, Le Priol and Bouvier got into a vehicle, circled the area to track down the two former athletes, and carried out a drive-by shooting. Aramburu was struck by fatal gunfire and died at the scene, while Hegarty escaped unharmed. In the aftermath of the killing, Le Priol fled France and was arrested by law enforcement in Hungary as he tried to cross the border into Ukraine. He told Hungarian officers at the time that he intended to join combat in Ukraine, a statement that investigators later viewed as a failed attempt to evade prosecution for Aramburu’s murder.
During the trial, defense teams for the two men presented mitigating circumstances: they argued Le Priol suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from his military service, while Bouvier carried unresolved trauma from an abusive childhood. But prosecutors and the presiding judge rejected attempts to frame the killing as an impulsive act born of circumstance. The presiding judge described Le Priol as driven by a clear “will to kill”, noting that “the narcissistic, intrusive and uncontrollable rage of Loik Le Priol ultimately led to the gratuitous killing of Mr. Aramburu.”
As the trial drew to a close, Le Priol publicly addressed Aramburu’s family to ask for forgiveness. “I’m Christian like you, the pope is here today,” he said, referencing the ongoing apostolic visit of Pope Leo XIV to France. “I don’t know if it’s a sign… [I] hope one day you can find the strength to forgive me.”
For Aramburu’s family, the verdict closes a years-long chapter of grief. In court statements, his widow Maria Aramburu said she only sought a ruling that would allow her and the couple’s three children to move forward and “build their lives as adults.” The court ultimately sentenced Le Priol, who fired the fatal shots, to 26 years in prison, while Bouvier – who fired the initial volley of gunfire – received a 19-year prison term.