Two men are on appeal from Tuesday March 14 by the Val-de-Marne Assize Court for the murder of Vanesa Campos, a 36-year-old trans Peruvian who was shot dead in August 2018 in the Bois de Boulogne, where she prostituted.
Mahmoud Kadri, 25, and Karim Ibrahim, 30, had been sentenced to 22 years in prison for organized gang murder at first instance by the Paris Assize Court in January 2022. They will again be in the dock in Créteil, alongside three other men.
Two of them are on trial for criminal association with a view to preparing a crime, and the third for having participated in the theft of the murder weapon, a pistol stolen a week earlier from a policeman while the latter was with a prostitute.
In the first instance, nine men, all Egyptians, had been returned to the assizes, including three for murder.
Eight of them had been convicted.
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Army "pack"
Vanesa Campos was shot dead during a punitive expedition on the night of August 16 to 17, 2018, in a remote and dark place in the Bois de Boulogne where she had been practicing for two years.
On the evening of the crime, Mahmoud Kadri and Karim Ibrahim had found themselves in the woods with a dozen other young men to confront "protectors" hired by South American trans prostitutes, targets for several years of a gang of thieves. Egyptians who robbed their customers.
The location where Vanesa Campos worked was the first from the road from which the group arrived, an armed “pack”, the attorney general, Olivier Auféril, had described during the trial.
A trial which had been “particularly trying” and peppered with “incidents”, according to Me Léa Dordilly, lawyer for Mahmoud Kadri.
“We expect a more serene, more peaceful appeal trial, where everyone can express themselves,” added the council.
The two main defendants, Mahmoud Kadri and Karim Ibrahim, blamed each other for the crime during this chaotic first trial, where some of the defendants had sometimes been expelled from the box.
Mahmoud Kadri was named as the shooter by his co-defendants, but claimed that Karim Ibrahim shot Vanesa Campos.
The latter, described as very violent by the victims and the civil parties, was described as "leader", alongside Mahmoud Kadri, of this "punitive expedition".
A role disputed by his lawyers, Me Julien Fresnault and Me Fares Aidel.
"He's a thief, he had no interest in there being such a drama" in the area where he committed his theft, they insisted.
“The court did not really succeed in determining which was the shooter”, regretted Me Dordilly.
The civil parties hope for their part "to get closer and closer to the truth", according to Me Chirine Heydari and Me Quentin de Margerie, who represent the mother, sister, five colleagues of Vanessa Campos and the association for the defense of trans people Acceptess-T.
"Justice will be done, that's for sure: the civil parties also hope for a form of sincerity on the part of the accused" and "recognition of their responsibilities", added Me de Margerie.