A female defendant charged with abusing and brutalizing a 12-year-old girl before causing her death by suffocation will go on trial for homicide this Friday in a case that shocked the country and sparked political waves.
Finding the Deceased Girl
The young victim’s remains was found concealed within a plastic trunk that had been dumped on the street close to her family home.
Dahbia Benkired, aged 27, faces charges for the killing of a child, violent sexual assault, torture and an act of barbarity in a case that provoked widespread horror across the nation three years ago.
Political Fallout
Far-right groups sought to gain electoral advantage from the brutal murder after it was disclosed that the suspect, who was of Algerian origin, had no right to remain in the country and had been issued with an order to leave weeks before the incident.
Sequence of Occurrences
The young girl had traveled a few hundred yards from school and arrived at her dwelling in the 19th arrondissement, where her parents served as the building’s concierges, around 3pm on a Friday in mid-October 2022.
The building’s video surveillance captured Benkired, who was without housing or work but staying at her sibling’s apartment in the building, encountering the girl shortly past 3pm in front of the building.
Investigation and Arrest
Daviet’s parents raised the alarm when their daughter did not appear home. An hour and a half later, Benkired was recorded in the lobby area of the building accompanied by luggage including a large trunk.
The defendant, who was said to have given inconsistent statements of events, was evaluated by several psychiatrists and clinical evaluators but judged able to stand trial. She has been held in a correctional facility in the Paris region for the preceding 36 months.
Political Commentary
In the wake of the killing, a nationalist political party sought to gain electoral leverage out of the suspect’s unauthorized residency. Éric Pauget, of the rightwing Les Républicains, said in parliament that the victim had been killed as a consequence of alleged leniency on immigration.
However, MPs were urged by ministers of the moderate administration to “show a little decency”.
The former legal affairs official, the ex-minister, charged them of playing “petty politics” and using “a child’s tragic death” to advance their ideological agenda.
Legal Framework and Potential Sentence
In France, any sexual violation of any kind, committed on another person by violence, intimidation, threats or surprise, is classified as sexual assault. The accused faces a life sentence if convicted.
The trial will continue through next Friday when a judicial decision is anticipated.
