PARIS: Key defendants charged in the murder of a transgender prostitute expressed remorse Saturday at the end of a trial that has highlighted rising violence against sex workers in France.
Vanesa Campos, a 36-year-old from Peru, was fatally shot in the chest in August 2018 in the Bois de Boulogne, a vast wooded park west of Paris that has long been a prostitution zone once night falls.
Police quickly focused on a group of around a dozen men of Egyptian origin, who had staged what prosecutors called a “punitive expedition” against Campos and others who had denounced repeated robberies and assaults against prostitutes and their clients by armed gangs.
Mahmoud Kadri, 24, and Karim Ibrahim, 29, who have accused each other of killing Campos, expressed sorrow Saturday at the end of a trial that began January 11.
“I apologise for everything that happened. I’m so sorry,“ the Arabic-speaking Kadri said through an interpreter before bursting into tears.
“I am so sorry for all that. I am sorry,“ Ibrahim told the court in French before deliberations began.
The prosecution recommended Thursday that Kadri be sentenced to 20 years in jail. He denies claims from his fellow accused that he shot and killed Campos on the night of August 16-17, 2018.
The prosecution recommended 15 years in prison for Ibrahim, now accusing him of complicity to murder rather than the original charge of involvement in a gang murder.
Just a month before her death, Campos was among a group who hired a guard to protect them while working among dense trees with no public lighting.
The assailants were armed with tear gas, tree branches, a knife, a stun gun, and a pistol that had been stolen a week earlier from a police car while the officer was with a prostitute.
Several other men, aged 23 to 34, are charged with participating in the murder -- five for taking part in the assault, and a sixth for stealing the pistol.
Campos's mother and sister, who live in Peru, are civil plaintiffs in the case along with six of her former colleagues, the bodyguard, the Acceptess-T transgender advocacy association and the Mouvement du Nid prostitute support group.
Acceptess-T in particular argues that increased violence against prostitutes stems from a 2016 law making it illegal to buy sex in France but not to sell it, shifting the criminal responsibility to clients who can be fined if caught.
While some groups say the law helps protect women from trafficking and exploitation by discouraging prostitution, many sex workers say it has made their jobs more dangerous and deprived them of income.
A verdict is expected later Saturday.-AFP
