Dupont de Ligonnès case: sister's lawyer breaks silence

New twist or total delirium? For the past ten days, an influencer (he denies this term) "YouTuber" named Aniss Zitouni, alias "Aqababe" on social networks, has set himself a challenge: to find Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès with the help of his 1.2 million "followers" (his followers), whom he calls his "moles" for the occasion. On April 22, he declared to Le Progrès de Lyon, the daily newspaper of his hometown: " One day, he said to me (his lawyer, editor's note) : 'With the community you have, you could even find Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès! ' And then I said to myself: 'Why not?' " And it didn't take long for Internet users to get into the game, and a photo published shortly after Aqababe's appeal for witnesses made headlines: it shows an individual who strongly resembles the most wanted man in France - and perhaps the world - apparently about to cross a road in Japan, a backpack slung over his shoulder. The problem: this photo is not dated, and the person in it seems far too young to be Dupont de Ligonnès, 14 years later.

Police waiting for information from Aqababe network?

While some have taken this initiative very badly, as we shall see (which calls for others to do so in other cases, according to the star YouTuber), Aqababe assures our colleagues: "I'm not running amok." He even says he has been in contact with law enforcement "intermediaries." "I thought the police were going to put obstacles in my way, but not at all, it's actually a pleasant surprise. They're waiting to see what information I'll manage to gather." Whether this is true or not, only he knows. The fact remains that the Nantes public prosecutor, Antoine Leroy, has stated that he has received "no factual and verifiable evidence" following the publication of this photograph.

Christine Dupont de Ligonnès' lawyer counterattacks

However, Aqababe's lawyer, Tom Michel, revealed in a press release that "precise, tangible and new information" had been gathered. This did not really please his counterpart, Stéphane Goldenstein, lawyer for Christine Dupont de Ligonnès (on the left in the illustration of this article, in 2012), Xavier's sister. In the daily newspaper Le Télégramme , he declared on Monday, April 28: "Some internet investigations are more serious than others [...] Those of this influencer seem to me to be rehashed and tell us nothing, except what we already know. Xavier is recognized everywhere but he is nowhere."

After Asia, a Maltese trail for Dupont de Ligonnès?

Angrily, Mr. Goldenstein continued his tirade to our colleagues in the local press, turning to threats: "Let's leave it to the police and the courts to do the cross-checking and analysis without being disturbed by gossip [...] His lawyer would do well to refrain from issuing press releases. He should also warn his client that complicity in fraudulent access to an automated data processing system constitutes a criminal offense. "

But nothing seems to be stopping Aqababe for the moment. The day after his appeal for witnesses, among all the information and photos he received, one in particular caught his attention: "We are on a Maltese trail," he stated on his social networks. He even confided this to Le Progrès : a source on the ground had in his hands a very suspicious identity card . So much so that the blogger plans to go to the island "Very soon!" Recently, we even mentioned the theory of an accomplice .