Dahbia Benkired Receives France's First Whole-Life Sentence for a Woman in Lola Daviet Murder

Dahbia Benkired, a 27-year-old Algerian national, was sentenced on October 24, 2025, to a rare whole-life imprisonment for the brutal murder of 12-year-old Lola Daviet in Paris. The verdict marks the first time a woman in France has received this harshest possible penalty, requiring her to serve at least 30 years. Benkired was convicted of raping, torturing, and killing the schoolgirl in October 2022, a case that deeply shocked the nation.

The horrific crime involved Benkired luring Lola Daviet into her sister's Paris apartment after the girl returned home from school. There, Lola was subjected to a sexual assault, attacked with scissors and a box cutter, and ultimately suffocated with duct tape. Following the murder, Benkired packed Lola's body into a suitcase and was later seen telling a customer at a cafe that she was "selling a kidney," according to reports.

Benkired was in France on a student visa but had overstayed its validity and was under an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF) issued in July 2022. During the trial, psychiatric evaluations determined she had "psychopathic" traits but was otherwise sane and without psychiatric pathology, despite her fluctuating accounts and claims of a dispute with Lola's mother as a motive. Her lawyer highlighted a traumatic past and drug use.

The whole-life sentence is exceptionally rare in France, previously reserved for notorious male offenders. Lola Daviet's mother, Delphine Daviet, expressed relief at the verdict, stating, "We believed in justice and we got it." The case also ignited significant political debate in France regarding immigration policies, with right-wing politicians seizing on Benkired's immigration status, a move Lola's parents publicly denounced.

The profound impact of the tragedy extended to Lola's family, with her father, Johan Daviet, reportedly succumbing to grief and alcoholism and passing away in 2024 at the age of 49. The court emphasized the "extreme cruelty of the criminal acts" and "true torture" inflicted upon Lola, acknowledging the unspeakable psychological damage to the victim and her family.