A Paris court has handed a rare whole-life sentence to 27-year-old Dahbia Benkired, who was found guilty of the brutal rape and murder of 12-year-old Lola Daviet, a case that has deeply shocked France and reignited debate over immigration and public safety.
The court ruled that Benkired, an Algerian national who was under an order to leave France, must serve at least 30 years before she can even be considered for parole. The sentence is the harshest possible punishment under French law and is seldom imposed.
Benkired has now become the first woman in France to receive a whole-life term, a punishment previously reserved for some of the country’s most notorious criminals, including serial killer Michel Fourniret and Salah Abdeslam, the jihadist involved in the 2015 Paris terror attacks that killed 130 people.
Lola was murdered in October 2022, and her body was later found stuffed inside a trunk near her family’s apartment building in the 19th arrondissement, northeast of Paris. The horrific nature of the crime sparked widespread outrage and grief across the nation.
The case also took a political turn, as right-wing and far-right politicians seized on Benkired’s immigration status to renew calls for tougher border controls and stricter enforcement of deportation orders.
The verdict, delivered after a tense trial attended by Lola’s grieving parents, was met with a mix of relief and somber reflection, marking the close of one of France’s most distressing criminal cases in recent memory.
