The second day of the trial of the parents of Inass Touloub, the girl known in France as the "martyr of the A10", was dominated by DNA testimony and by the halting answers of her father, according to ladepeche.fr. Halima E., 72, faces charges of torture and barbaric acts resulting in death; Ahmed Touloub, 74, is tried for complicity. The proceedings in Blois concern a case that began on 11 August 1987, when the child's body was found in a ditch beside the motorway.
Ahmed Touloub told the court he had done nothing wrong. "I never touched any of my children," he said, in the account published by ladepeche.fr.
Why it matters
For the residents of Suèvres, the case has never closed. Rémy M., the former lead investigator, told the court that the anonymous grave had been a constant dread for the village. Learning that the case had been solved, he said, did not make him think first of arrests: he was relieved that the grave could finally carry a name.
His testimony also set out why the inquiry stalled for so long. No missing-child report was ever filed, which led him to suspect from the outset that the perpetrators were family members. The composite image released in the public appeal had to be retouched, he said, because the original photograph could not be shown to the public. Investigators checked schools to establish whether any child had gone unaccounted for. Rémy M. described the autopsy as beyond any adequate description, and said that of all the judicial cases he worked on, the one image that stayed with him was of this little girl.
Genetic trail and a disputed memory
A specialist in DNA analysis explained to the court how unidentified genetic material is compared through the FNAEG, the national database, and how a case can advance as testing techniques improve. Several DNA profiles were recovered from the blanket in which Inass was found; one belonged to a brother of the victim. The match was confirmed in 2017, after that brother's profile entered the database in connection with unrelated matters. The court heard that the probability of kinship exceeds 99.99 percent.
From there, investigators rebuilt the family tree and reached the child's parents. The genetic profiles of Ahmed Touloub and Halima E. corresponded to those of the parents of Inass and of her brother, according to the reporting.
Halima E. was asked to confirm that she had understood she was Inass's mother. She said she had understood it when she appeared before the investigating judge, and that until then she had believed her daughter was still alive. She repeated that she had thought so until 2018. The advocate general described her hesitations as suspicious and pressed her sharply, asking whether she was mocking the court over her own child.
Ahmed Touloub, questioned by the presiding judge, said at one point that he was listening but tired, and the hearing was paused. He described gaps in his memory, saying that some days he remembers and other days he does not, and that he can forget from one day to the next what he has eaten. The judge observed that this concerned recent memory rather than the events at issue. When asked where his daughter was on 11 August 1987, or whether he knew she was dead when he was arrested, he said nothing, or said he did not understand.
His counsel, Me Frank Berton, objected repeatedly to the judge's questioning, arguing that his client did not understand what was being asked. The judge replied that he understood and was answering, and told the lawyer to sit down, insisting she would not be prevented from putting questions. The exchange grew heated.
Me Radot, for Halima E., said the technical presentation had been difficult for a non-specialist to follow. Questioning one medical expert, he established that the witness had limited himself to analysing fractures and was not the forensic pathologist.
A village waiting for a name
The proceedings have also stirred local memory. A separate campaign reported by 20 Minutes is calling for a street in Puteaux to be named after Inass Touloub, a sign that the case has moved beyond the courtroom into public commemoration.
The trial continues, with the court still to hear the evidence on the circumstances of the child's death and on the responsibility of each accused.
