Dear readers,
The barbaric murder of little Lola stunned and moved the whole of France in October 2022. In the photo of this 12-year-old blonde girl with an angelic face, everyone can recognize a daughter, a little sister, a niece.
After the emotion came the time for the controversy: the main suspect, Dahbia Benkired, should not have been on French soil.
This 25-year-old Algerian woman was in fact subject to an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF).
Another subject of tension: the psychiatric state of the accused.
Some feared that she would be declared irresponsible and thus escape justice... We learned this week that a psychiatric expertise from January 2024 confirms that she does not suffer from any psychiatric illness.
Dahbia Benkired should therefore - barring a last minute twist - be referred to a criminal court.
A real relief for Lola's family.
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In the rest of the current news…
Trial of Salim Berrada, accused of 17 rapes and sexual assaults
Seventeen complainants, aged 18 to 28 at the time of the facts, accuse photographer Salim Berrada of rape and sexual assault in his Parisian studio between 2014 and 2016. The photographer engaged in conversation with dozens of young women - via Facebook, model sites or dating applications -, systematically using the same catchphrase:
“This side that is both wild and distinguished attracts me, I would like to have you under my lens”
.
Flattered to be contacted by this renowned photographer on social networks, some agreed to go to his home for a shoot.
But once there, nothing went as planned.
The complainants denounce forced kisses, imposed fellatio, and non-consensual digital and vaginal penetration.
More than half of them are believed to have been drugged.
At the bar of the Paris criminal court, the unbearable testimonies follow one another.
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The mysterious disappearance of a priest in Brittany
Suicide, accident or bad encounter?
Two months after his disappearance, Father Guégan remains nowhere to be found.
This 55-year-old priest, at the head of the parish of Ploërmel (Morbihan) since 2016, literally disappeared.
The fifty-year-old's car, open and with his phone inside, was found in a parking lot in Locunolé.
This village in Finistère is located at the bottom of a piece of thick forest, in front of the Roches du Diable, a site where a river flows which takes on the appearance of a dangerous torrent at this time of year.
This is where the police dogs lost track of the priest.
The investigation by the Lorient public prosecutor's office opened for "disturbing disappearance" continues.
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At the Strasbourg attack trial, the hearing of the main accused
His criminal record is as long as an arm.
Already convicted 24 times by the courts, Audrey Mondjehi is accused of having sought weapons for the terrorist Chérif Chekatt.
The latter, registered S for Islamist radicalization and monitored by the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI), killed 5 people on the Strasbourg Christmas market in December 2018.
The accused, a 42-year-old Ivorian, met Chérif Chekatt in prison, ten years before the events, at the Saint-Mihiel detention center (Meuse).
“
Sometimes we have bad encounters, Madam
,” the accused (almost) apologized during the hearing.
Before adding: “
When someone suggests a move and says “I would like to see you outside” and we got along well in prison, we say “why not”
”.
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Yesterday's fact
Le Figaro of March 21, 1994. Le Figaro
Thirty years ago, between March 21 and 25, 1994, the trial of the
“monster of Elne”
was held at the Perpignan assizes.
Christian Van Geloven was on trial for the kidnapping, rape and murder of two little girls aged 10 and 9, Ingrid and Muriel, in the fall of 1991. The case made a lot of noise at the time because the commercial framework of 49 years old who stands in the dock is a repeat offender.
This father of two boys has already been convicted of sexual touching of children.
Enough to wake up, as with every crime committed against children, those in favor of reinstating the death penalty.
After five days of trial, Van Geloven was sentenced to life imprisonment with a security period of thirty years.
But devastated families got few answers from their child's tormentor.
“We sometimes found ourselves wishing he had a repulsive physique, the sinister appearance of the ogres in children's stories,”
observes
Le Figaro
on the last day of the trial
.
But listening and watching Christian Van Geloven for five days taught nothing.”
He died of cancer in 2011 at the central house in Ensisheim.
By our journalist Camille Lestienne
.
On the agenda
Tuesday March 26:
four men will be tried by the Paris criminal court for theft by deception to the detriment of elderly people.
The trial will take place before the 13th chamber from 1:30 p.m.
Thursday March 28:
trial of an Internet user, before the Béziers criminal court, for having threatened to kill Emmanuel Macron on TikTok.
Thursday March 28:
deliberation, at the Paris Court of Appeal, against Éric Zemmour prosecuted for racist insults towards Hapsatou Sy.
In January 2023, the former presidential candidate was fined 4,000 euros for describing the first name of former Canal+ group columnist Hapsatou Sy as an “insult to France”.
Friday March 29:
last day of the trial of Salim Berrada, tried by the Paris criminal court for 17 rapes and sexual assaults.
The verdict is expected during the day.
To read
In
Grit Your Teeth
, a thriller written by the novelist Valérie Péronnet, Marie-Laure Brunel-Dupin recounts her mission as a behavioral analyst.
Head of the gendarmerie's unsolved cases division, the lieutenant-colonel explains how investigators track down criminals.
Their mission:
“put yourself in the author’s place, slip into his head, see with his eyes, feel his emotions, grasp his logic”
.
A macabre scene opens the novel.
Aurélie, 27, and her aunt Élisabeth, 49, are found murdered in the house where they live.
The two women had their throats slit, their eyes were blindfolded, their ankles and wrists taped.... The perpetrator of the murders was particularly harsh on Aurélie who also suffered acts of torture.
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Thank you for reading this new letter devoted to news items.
Would you like to testify or share your suggestions with us?
Do not hesitate to write to us at the following address: faitsdivers@lefigaro.fr
Have a nice week !
Guillaume Poingt, news journalist at Le
Figaro
.