BOLIVIA-CRIME/FRENCH Parents of one of two murdered French tourists watch as man convicted in the crime goes to prison

Record ID: 154153

  • Title: BOLIVIA-CRIME/FRENCH Parents of one of two murdered French tourists watch as man convicted in the crime goes to prison
  • Date: 25th May 2015
  • Summary: EL ALTO, BOLIVIA (MAY 23, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT OF EL ALTO VARIOUS OF PARENTS OF MURDERED FRENCHMAN JEREMIE BELLANGER, PATRICK BELLANGER AND CECILE BLANLOEIL, OUTSIDE EXIT DOOR OF THE AIRPORT (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) PATRICK BELLANGER, FATHER OF JEREMIE BELLANGER SAYING: "We had to wait almost five years for this moment to arrive because a
  • Embargoed: 9th June 2015 13:00
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  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVABKPK9KF0UYBS5IWY1JRW1J3S7
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The parents of murdered Frenchman Jeremie Bellanger witness their son's murderer go to prison for 30 years Saturday (May 23).
    Patrick Bellanger and Cecile Blanloeil waited outside El Alto's airport for the moment when Jaime Martinez would be escorted to Chonchocoro high security prison.
    "We had to wait almost 5 years for this moment to arrive because at the beginning we did not have the support of the police authorities or the judges," said Patrick Bellanger. "Thankfully we have the principal author of the crime but we know that there were other people, at least 8 people. Fannie was probably raped by all of them, there is that possibility."
    In February a Bolivian court handed down the maximum sentence of 30 years in prison to Martinez who was found guilty of killing two French tourists in the northern part of the country.
    Jaime Martinez was the primary suspect in the 2010 murders of Jeremie Bellanger and Fannie Blancho. He was tried with three other men, but they were declared innocent and released.
    The bodies of the two victims have never been found and there is a reward for information leading to the recovery of their remains.
    "I am sad because we do not have a body. We have fought very hard and at least we have the main murderer of our son but that is not enough for me," said Bellanger's mother Cecile Blanloiel. "It is not enough. It is important for us to find their bodies to be able to grieve."
    The moment they had waited for arrived and Martinez, shackled and under heavy police escort was unceremoniously led through the airport and out to a white van that took him straight to Chonchocoro.
    Jeremie Bellanger and Fannie Blancho, 25 and 23-years-old respectively at the time of their disappearance, are believed to have been murdered in the town of Guayaramerin in August, 2010.
    The young couple arrived in the city of Guayaramerin in the far north of Bolivia along the Brazilian border as tourists.
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