A French court on Friday sentenced Dahbia Benkired to life in prison for the rape, torture, and murder of French schoolgirl Lola Davie, LETA reported citing AFP.
27-year-old Dahbia Benkired received a life sentence without the possibility of parole, becoming the first woman in France to receive this maximum punishment.
Benkired was found guilty of murdering 12-year-old Lola Davie, committed in 2022 in Paris. The case shocked France and sparked a wave of anti-immigration sentiments, as the accused had no right to be in France.
Benkired was arrested after Davie's disappearance in northeastern Paris. The girl's body was later found in a suitcase in the lobby of a building where her father and mother worked as caretakers.
The presiding judge noted the "extreme cruelty" of the crime, describing it as "real torture."
"In determining the sentence, the court took into account the indescribable psychological harm caused to the victim and her family in such cruel and almost unspeakable circumstances," the judge stated.
The prosecutor requested a "non-reducible life sentence" — the highest penalty under the French Penal Code — to reflect the "particular gravity," "cruelty" of the crime, and the suffering inflicted on the family.
Investigators established that Benkired raped and tortured the girl before strangling her.
At the beginning of the trial last week, the accused apologized for her "horrific" actions.
Three forensic psychiatric experts noted "psychopathic" traits in the defendant and acknowledged that she did not have a mental health condition requiring treatment that would render her insane.
Conservative and far-right politicians have used this case to call for stricter immigration laws, as it emerged that Benkired's student visa had expired and she had failed to comply with an order to leave France.
The mother of the murdered girl urged politicians to stop using her daughter's death for their own interests.
