Blois (France) (AFP) – The trial of the parents of Inass Touloub, a four-year-old girl found dead and mutilated in 1987 on the side of the A10 motorway, opened Monday before the Loir-et-Cher Assize Court in Blois, 39 years after the events.

Published on: 02/11/2026 - 02:29Modified on: 02/11/2026 - 15:03

The two accused, who appear free, arrived separately. The mother, aged 72, arrived hidden in her scarf. The father, 74, climbed the steps of the courthouse with difficulty, a cane in hand and his face behind a black surgical mask.

At the lunch break, the mother was attacked by a handful of members of the Mouv'Enfants collective, who had organized an action in court before the hearing. They followed her for about a hundred meters as she left the palace, shouting “Justice for Inass” or “shame”.

At least three police officers had to restrain Arnaud Gallais, the president of the collective.

The accused, now separated, did not exchange the slightest glance, remaining motionless and impassive during the first morning of the trial. The debates focused on the defense's request, ultimately rejected, to interrupt the broadcast of the hearing in a second room, and on the requests for the constitution of civil parties.

The one filed by the town of Suèvres, where little Inass has been buried for decades, was contested by defense lawyers and lawyers for the other civil parties. Me Eleonore Terrien-Freneau, lawyer for Inass's siblings, described Suèvres' civil action as "nauseating" and "unworthy".

Disappearance

She also indicated that her clients had expressed the wish "to offer another place of rest (to Inass Touloub) elsewhere than in Suèvres", where she has been buried since 1987, so that she would have "a burial in correspondence with her family ties".

“There are comments that do not honor those who say them,” reacted to the press Me Jean Sannier, lawyer for the town.

Tried respectively for "torture and barbaric acts leading to death" without intention to cause it and for "complicity", the mother and father of Inass Touloub both face life imprisonment at the end of this trial which is due to last until November 18.

The case began on August 11, 1987 with the discovery of the girl's mutilated remains in a ditch on the A10 by two highway agents in Suèvres, a village in Loir-et-Cher between Orléans and Tours.

No one had reported him missing.

The body bore traces of violence, including burns from an iron and scars linked to human bites, attributed to a woman, according to the findings of forensic doctors consulted by AFP.

Running out of leads, the gendarmerie launched the largest call for witnesses ever initiated in France to try to identify the little girl in around thirty countries. His photograph had been posted in 65,000 schools and 30,000 town halls.

Flowery

Two dismissal orders were issued in 1991 and 1997 after unsuccessful searches.

More than 30 years after the events, the victim was identified and his parents arrested in June 2018, thanks to a DNA sample taken from one of the victim's brothers in another case of violence.

However, it will be necessary to wait eight more years before a trial takes place.

Halima El Bakhti, the mother, will have to answer for "voluntary, numerous and spread over time" acts which led to the death of her daughter, according to an investigators' report consulted by AFP.

While in police custody, the parents, who had a total of seven children, including Inass, did not admit to being the perpetrators of the violence that led to the death of their daughter, accusing each other of domestic violence.

Little Inass, who would be 43 years old today, rests in the Suèvres cemetery, where her grave is still regularly decorated with flowers.

“Finally! It’s the big day of a trial that we have waited so long for,” Raphaël Pilleboue, former mayor of Suèvres and guardian of the little girl’s memory, told AFP on Monday.

© 2026 AFP

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