“I apologize for everything that happened, I’m sorry. Mahmoud Kadri, who speaks through an Arabic language interpreter, breaks down in tears at the mention of his mother. Designated by his co-defendants as the one who shot Vanesa Campos on the night of August 16 to 17, 2018, which he disputes, the 24-year-old young man faces 20 years in prison.
Against Karim Ibrahim, 29, also dismissed for “murder in an organized gang”, the Advocate General Olivier Auféril requested a requalification as “complicity in murder” and a fifteen-year prison sentence. “I’m sorry for all this, I’m sorry,” repeats the accused in his last words to the court, before it leaves to deliberate.
Five years in prison required for the other six defendants
Vanesa Campos, a 36-year-old Peruvian, had been shot dead during a punitive expedition, in a remote and dark place in the Bois de Boulogne where she had been practicing for two years. On the evening of the incident, she found herself “naked, defenseless, faced with the arrival (of a) pack”, a group of at least ten young men, armed and “galvanized by a feeling of all -power”, underlined the Advocate General. This expedition was intended to “regain control of the territory by putting an end to the resistance” of South American trans prostitutes, who had hired “protectors” against the actions of a band of thieves who had been robbing their customers for several years.
A total of eight men, all of Egyptian origin, are appearing in this trial. In addition to the heavy sentences for the first two, who blame each other for the crime, the representative of the prosecution had requested five-year prison sentences, one of which was suspended, against five defendants tried for their participation to the punitive expedition. The same five-year prison sentence was requested against an eighth man, tried for the theft of the murder weapon, a pistol stolen a week earlier from a policeman while he was with a prostitute.
The Advocate General also requested a ban on carrying weapons and a ten-year or permanent ban on French territory for the eight defendants. The verdict is expected in the evening.