Murder charge sought in Paris activist death

[June 08, 2013]  PARIS (AP) -- The Paris prosecutor said Saturday he is seeking an investigation for murder against a 20-year-old far-right militant suspected of being involved in the killing of an anti-fascist activist in Paris this week.

Prosecutor Francois Molins said authorities were also seeking charges against the suspect, identified only as "Esteban," and three other alleged accomplices among a group of skinheads for group violence in the brawl between far-right and anti-fascist activists that led to the death of 18-year-old university student Clement Meric. Authorities had previously said he was 19 years old.

The four suspects were being held, and a fifth suspect, a woman, was facing the prospect of preliminary charges for complicity in group violence, Molins said. He said the suspects were linked to a far-right group known as "Troisieme Voie" -- or Third Way.

Militant extreme-right groups have become increasingly visible in France, and France's Socialist-led government said after Meric's death that it wants to ban extreme-right groups.

The fight erupted outside a clothing store where members of the two groups had run into each other by chance on Wednesday, Molins said, citing witness accounts and testimony by the suspects during police questioning.

Molins said the suspects claimed to have responded to alleged provocation by the group that included Meric, a student at the prestigious Paris political science university known as Sciences-Po.

"The one named Esteban acknowledged to police that he had struck Clement Meric twice -- bare-fisted, he claimed -- including the blow that caused him to fall to the ground," Molins said. "A friend of Clement Meric said he saw him (Esteban) with brass knuckles, while another witness of the scene referred to a 'shiny object' in his hands."

A police sweep of Esteban's home turned up two sets of brass knuckles, the prosecutor added.

Early results of the autopsy showed that Meric had died of skull and brain trauma, and a hemorrhage near the brain, following "several blows," Molins said, citing a medical examiner -- who could not confirm, however, whether brass knuckles had been used.

Eight people were originally detained by police, and prosecutors weren't ruling out future charges against other possible accomplices, the prosecutor added.

[Associated Press; By JAMEY KEATEN]

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