A sentence significantly reduced on appeal: two men of Egyptian nationality were sentenced Thursday, March 30 to 17 years and 14 years imprisonment by the Assize Court of Val-de-Marne for the murder of Vanesa Campos, a transgender sex worker, in August 2018 in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. Mahmoud Kadri, 25, and Karim Ibrahim, 30, were sentenced to 22 years' imprisonment at first instance by the Paris Assize Court in January 2022.

"By reducing our client's sentence by eight years, the court, after peaceful debates, has restored the just role of its participation in this case," said Karim Ibrahim's lawyers, Julien Fresnault and Fares Aidel, at the end of the trial. This decision made it possible to "ensure that justice is done" for Vanesa Campos, added Mr. Aidel.

The two men were on appeal alongside three other Egyptians, accused of criminal conspiracy and theft of the murder weapon. One was acquitted. The other two were sentenced respectively to three years' imprisonment, one of which was suspended for the theft of the weapon, and five years, two of which were suspended for criminal association.

"Fair" decision

"The Assize Court considered that there was not enough evidence in the file" and "we are very satisfied with this decision which is fair," welcomed Léa Zimmermann, lawyer of Karim Abousheisha, acquitted on appeal. He had been sentenced to six years at first instance.

Me Quentin de Margerie, lawyer of the civil parties - including the mother and sister of Vanesa Campos and five of his colleagues - did not wish to react to the verdict.

Attorney General Olivier Auféril had requested on Tuesday sentences of 20 years against Mahmoud Kadri, aged 25, for murder in an organized gang and aggravated robbery, and 15 years against Karim Ibrahim, aged 30, for complicity in murder in an organized gang. "In this case, there is the shooter who pulls the trigger and the one I consider an accomplice who created the conditions for the fatal gesture to happen," he said.

Punitive expedition

On the night of the crime, Mahmoud Kadri and Karim Ibrahim had found themselves in the Bois de Boulogne with a dozen other young men to confront the "protectors" hired by South American transgender prostitutes, targets for years of Egyptian thieves who robbed their customers.

Vanesa Campos, 36, was killed during this punitive expedition on the night of August 16 to 17, 2018, in a remote place in the Bois de Boulogne where she had been working for two years.

A real "execution", according to Me Quentin de Margerie: "kill, they were perfectly ready to do it and they did it" during this "punitive expedition", he insisted, on behalf of the civil parties.

Working in the Bois de Boulogne? A "hell", he had described before the court, where prostitutes face "armed thieves, methodical" and "very violent", who exercise a "regulated cutting, a pure and simple exploitation of this place of the Bois de Boulogne".

Faced with this violence, vulnerable foreign women who "do not know where to turn" and who, according to Me de Margerie, "are afraid of the police because many are in an irregular situation".

With AFP

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