The trial of the two men accused of strangling an employee to death in 2018 continued in Brussels as investigators in the case were heard at the Assize Court on Monday.
Ludovic Lefèbvre (38) and Tanguy Lecocq (48) are currently on trial for the murder of Hakim Menhal, who was strangled with a cable while watching a football match in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre on the night of 10 April 2018.
The two accused men were partners in a small company selling mobile phone subscriptions. They worked with several independent sellers, including Hakim Menhal, who had negotiated higher commissions than the other salesmen.
According to Lefèbvre's testimony, Lecocq convinced him that Menhal had to be killed because he was the source of their financial problems.
Just a joke
On Monday, the Brussels Assize Court began hearing evidence from the examining magistrate and investigators in the trial.
One of the police officers who was first on the scene described how they discovered a body wrapped in a tarpaulin at Lefèbvre's home in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre.
The Brussels-Capital Ixelles police zone was called at around 01:00 on 11 April 2018 by an individual claiming that one of his friends, Ludovic Lefèbvre, had told him in a WhatsApp call that he had killed someone. He said Lefèbvre had also shown him a video of what looked like a human body wrapped in tarpaulin.
As the suspect lived in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, the Brussels-Capital Ixelles police zone passed on the information to the Montgomery police. A patrol from this zone went to the scene.
"Mr Lefèbvre didn't seem surprised to see us," said one of the police officers who were at the scene. "He was very comfortable when he saw us and told us it was a joke he'd played on one of his friends and that he'd found the video he showed him on the ‘dark net’. He gave us permission to search his home. We didn't find anything except that it was dirty and untidy," he said.
'It's me, I admit it'
"It was then around 01:45 and we decided to leave the premises," continued the officer. "As we were turning our vehicle around to leave, one of my colleagues noticed that we hadn't seen a bathroom in the flat. So we went back in. Mr Lefèbvre opened the door again, and when we closed it we saw that it had been opened to conceal another door, the bathroom door. When we opened it, we found a body wrapped in a tarpaulin. Mr Lefèbvre immediately said to us: It's me, I admit it, but please look after my dog," explained the officer.
Lefèbvre confessed to strangling Menhal with a cable after the victim was drugged with sleeping pills by Lecocq.
Tanguy Lecocq denies any involvement in the crime. He said that when he left Ludovic Lefèbvre's home, Hakim Menhal was still very much alive and appeared normal.
