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Defendants sorry over transgender prostitute’s killing as trial ends

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.

Defendants sorry over transgender prostitute's killing as trial ends
Protestors hold signs demanding justice for trans prostitute Vanessa Campos. Photo: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP

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 on 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.

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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.

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CRIME

French cinema boss on trial for sexual assault

The head of France's top cinema institution Dominique Boutonnat denied sexually assaulting his godson as he went on trial Friday in a case that has led to calls for him to step down.

French cinema boss on trial for sexual assault

The trial comes as French cinema reels from a renewed #MeToo reckoning that has seen several big names, including acting legend Gerard Depardieu, accused of sexual abuse.

READ ALSO: French actor Gérard Depardieu to be tried for sexual assault in October

Activists have denounced Boutonnat’s continued leadership of the National Centre of Cinema (CNC), whose role includes overseeing measures to curb sexual violence in the industry.

His godson accuses him of trying to masturbate him during a holiday in Greece in 2020 when he was 19.

“I looked at him to find my godfather and that’s when I saw someone completely different… It was someone using me to masturbate,” the godson, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court.

Boutonnat responded in court that it was his godson who had initiated the situation and kissed him.

“I feel bad about leaving an ambiguous situation, but to say there was a sexual assault is false,” he told the court.

He was placed under investigation in February 2021 but still reappointed by the government as head of the CNC in July 2022.

Training to prevent abuse has in recent months become obligatory for films seeking public funding via the CNC.

The CNC told AFP that the case against Boutonnat came from “the private sphere” and had no relation to its activities.

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