A couple was arrested Wednesday morning as part of the investigation into the death of nationalist activist Quentin Deranque, the Lyon prosecutor announced. These two new arrests bring the number of people in police custody in this case to 11.

Published on: 02/18/2026 - 11:11 Modified on: 02/18/2026 - 21:08

To display this YouTube content, it is necessary to authorize audience measurement and advertising cookies.

An extension in your browser appears to be blocking the loading of the video player. To be able to watch this content, you must disable or uninstall it.

The judicial investigation into the death of nationalist activist Quentin Deranque continues. A couple was arrested on the morning of Wednesday February 18, bringing the number of people in police custody in this case to 11, the Lyon prosecutor announced.

The man, suspected of having a direct link with the violence, and his partner, suspected of having helped him escape justice, were arrested as part of the investigation opened for "voluntary homicide", said Thierry Dran, confirming information from BFMTV.

Also read: Death of Quentin in Lyon: why is La France insoumise being blamed?

Tuesday evening, between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., seven men and two women had already been arrested during coordinated operations carried out in the Lyon region, Haute-Loire, Drôme and Aisne.

Among them is Jacques-Élie Favrot, parliamentary assistant to LFI deputy Raphaël Arnault.

A second parliamentary assistant to Raphaël Arnault and a former intern were also identified among the 11 people arrested on Tuesday, two sources close to the investigation told AFP on Wednesday.

The former intern is suspected of having directly participated in the violence, the parliamentary collaborator of having helped him to escape the police, according to these sources, who confirmed information from the newspaper Le Parisien.

Six people suspected of having participated in the violence

Raphaël Arnault, who founded the ultra-left movement the Young Guard in 2018 before being elected deputy for Vaucluse in 2024, announced that he had taken steps on Monday to terminate Jacques-Élie Favrot's contract.

Among this first wave of arrests, six people are suspected of having participated in the violence and three of having provided support, detailed a source close to the case.

The eleven have been questioned since Tuesday by investigators as part of their custody. This was extended by 24 hours for nine of them, the Lyon prosecutor's office announced on Wednesday.

Seven people are currently in police custody for "intentional homicide, aggravated violence" and "criminal conspiracy with a view to committing a crime", and the four others are there for "providing means to evade searches", specifies the prosecution in a press release.

Murder of Quentin in Lyon: “Political violence to the point of murder”

Some are the subject of S files, issued by internal intelligence to identify people potentially dangerous to national security, according to another source close to the investigation.

Quentin Deranque, 23, was hit Thursday evening by several hooded people, on the sidelines of a conference by LFI MEP Rima Hassan at Sciences Po Lyon, where he had come to ensure the security of activists from the Némésis identity collective. Suffering from serious head trauma, he died on Saturday.

Bomb threat at LFI national headquarters

In this climate of tension, the national headquarters of La France Insoumise, located in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, had to be briefly evacuated due to a bomb threat.

“The national headquarters of France Insoumise has just been evacuated following a bomb threat. The police are on site. All employees and activists are safe,” announced movement coordinator Manuel Bompard on X in the morning.

According to a source close to the matter, an “inspection of the premises to remove doubts” took place without any explosives being found. LFI employees returned to the premises around noon.

“I now ask that the accusations (against LFI) stop, because, as we saw this morning and as we have seen for several days, these accusations then have consequences and lead a certain number of extremely dangerous activists to make threats, intimidation, attacks on offices and premises,” declared Manuel Bompard to the press.

The Bouches-du-Rhône MP also called on “public authorities” to “guarantee a dignified and healthy democratic debate” in a context of high tensions.

"A milestone has been reached. Those who use the tragedy and the death of a young man to attack rebellious France must stop their abject maneuvers", for her part denounced the rebellious vice-president of the National Assembly, Clémence Guetté.

With AFP

Keywords associated with the article

The content you are trying to access does not exist or is no longer available.