The French driver of a car involved in the hit-and-run death of Lee Zeitouni, a 25-year-old Israeli woman in Tel Aviv in September 2011, was indicted on Tuesday, the Paris Prosecutor spokesperson announced.
Eric Robic was charged with aggravated manslaughter and not providing aid to a person in distress. French prosecutors opened a probe into the case last year.
Lee Zeitouni was hit by a speeding car on a crosswalk in Tel Aviv and left to die. Robic and a fellow Frenchman aboard the same vehicle, Claude Khayat, immeditely fled to France after the accident to avoid Israeli justice.
The case caused widespread outrage in the Israeli public opinion and prompted calls for the two men to be extradited to stand trial. But France doesn’t extradite its citizens to countries that are not members of the European Union.
After efforts to bring the pair to justice in Israel failed, Lee Zeitouni’s family filed a complaint against Robic and Khayat in France.
Robic is facing up to 10 years in prison and a 150,000 euro (198,000 US $) fine if convicted. He has been banned from leaving France and driving pending his trial.
Khayat is summoned to the judge on Friday. The two men have a criminal record.
Robic was arrested last month following a brawl involving criminals in a night club of Juan- les- Pins, a French Riviera town, where he was vacationing. He had an unlicensed gun. It's the second time he was arrested for various crimes in the last year.
''This attitude does not surprise me at all, given what I know of this man,'' said Gilles-William Goldnadel, lawyer of Lee Zeitouni’s family, expressing the hope the two men would be placed in a "extremely strict" judicial review.
Roi Peled, Zeitouni's partner, stressed that "Robic was an offender before Lee was killed and he sticks to his criminal ways. I hope French authorities address this issue seriously… I hope this time he won't be able to get away with it with his money and sharp lawyers."