Pallade Veneta - French prosecutor demands maximum sentence for schoolgirl's murder

Dahbia Benkired is standing trial for killing 12-year-old Lola Daviet in the French capital 2022, in a case that horrified the country and sparked anti-immigration fervour because the woman did not have the right to be in France.

Benkired, now aged 27, was detained after Daviet went missing in the northeast of Paris, her body then found in a trunk in the lobby of the building where her father and mother worked as caretakers.

The public prosecutor argued Benkired should be handed an "irreducible life sentence", the harshest penalty under the French penal code, which does not allow for parole or a reduction in sentence.

The sentence must reflect "the extreme gravity" of the crimes committed, "their cruelty", and "the suffering" they caused her family, he said.

Investigators said Benkired raped and tortured the girl before suffocating her to death.

The accused apologised for her "horrible" actions when her trial opened last week.

But three psychiatric experts said they had noted "psychopathic" tendencies in the defendant, and did not think she suffered from any mental health condition that could be cured.

Conservative and far-right politicians seized on the case to call for better immigration law enforcement, after Benkired was found to have overstayed a student visa and failed to comply with a notice to leave France.

The victim's mother has urged politicians to stop exploiting her daughter's death.

F.Amato--PV