MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

France opens court investigation into killing of two students in Argentina

President Sarkozy was on the phone with Cristina Fernandez over the case that has shocked France

A court investigation over the “kidnapping, rape and murders,” of the two French women killed in Salta, northern Argentina was opened Friday in Paris, French court sources informed.

The French women, Houria Moumni (24) and Cassandre Bouvier (29), were shot dead while walking through a natural reserve, on holiday in la Quebrada de San Lorenzo, Salta province. The bodies were found last Friday, June 29.

A judge will be named Friday to supervise the investigation, which will keep the family members of the victims informed of all advances made in Argentina, said the court source.

“The objective is not to substitute the Argentine court, however to make it possible for the families to have an open door to the details of the investigation in Argentina,” explained the court source.

Family members of the tourists travelled to Buenos Aires today, however the bodies had still not been transported from Salta for their repatriation. The caskets carrying the young women’s remains are expected to arrive to the Argentine capital early Saturday and should be in Paris late the same day.

Salta Governor, Juan Manuel Urtubey informed that French President Nicolás Sarkozy maintained a personal interest into the case and has been in recent contact with President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner regarding the situation.

All suspects that had been retained by Salta authorities in possible connection to the killings so far have been released on insufficient evidence. Police are currently searching for four Argentine tourists who signed into the national park five minutes after Moumni and Bouvier.

Furthermore the police are still working to determine the exact date of their death. The two friends and scholars of the prestigious Sorbonne University registered to go walking in the San Lorenzo Quebrada on 15 July. Their bodies were found two weeks later by a group of hikers.

Preliminary autopsies suggested they had been killed the day before, on 27 July but local media are reporting that further tests have shown they died around 16 or 17 July.

However the Argentine Judge Martin Perez is confident that DNA tests will help solve the case since semen and hairs were recovered from one of the women.