Fugitive Convicted in Morocco After Faking Death to Evade French Murder Charge

Mehdi Ettir, a seasonal construction worker, was killed in broad daylight in Paris on March 27, 2011 by one of his friends named Hassan Benhamza. A dark day for Inès, his sister. "My life stopped. I can no longer be the way I was before," she confides in the "Sept à Huit" report broadcast on Sunday, March 16 on TF1. Fleeing justice, the murderer took refuge since then in Morocco, his native country, before simulating his own death, with the complicity of his family. "It’s still serious, to have made Mehdi’s family and the justice system believe that a murderer is dead, knowing that he is alive," fumes Mehdi’s sister in anger.

According to the account of Djamel, a close friend of the two protagonists, it all started from a simple dispute between the two friends, in a gymnasium in the Belleville neighborhood, on March 26, 2011. The next day, Hassan assaulted Mehdi in front of the latter’s home, stabbing him five times with a kitchen knife, before fleeing. Transferred to the hospital, the victim succumbed to his injuries shortly afterwards. Subsequently, the investigators found the murder weapon on which Hassan’s DNA was identified. This is how they placed Hassan’s family under surveillance, discovering that the young man had taken refuge in Morocco, his country of origin, two days after the murder.

After four months of investigation, one of Hassan’s brothers announced to the Paris police the death of the murderer, providing as proof a death certificate issued in Rabat, dated June 11. Several members of his family, including his mother, told the investigators that the young man, eaten by remorse, would have consumed "pills" to take his own life, adding that Hassan was buried "near his father’s farm." A version that convinces neither the investigators nor the victim’s family. "The interest of this lie is to stop all the searches around Hassan. He wants to live with impunity and for the rest of his life, and without being bothered by this case," denounces Me Sabrina Goldman, lawyer for Mehdi’s family.

After several months of wiretapping, the investigators finally intercepted conversations between the "living dead" fugitive and his father. "A year, it’s been a year that I’ve been waiting, I’m not moving. My life is a nightmare [...]. Staying buried like a bat," Hassan complained in the recording. Placed in custody, his mother, his two brothers and his girlfriend were convicted on January 3, 2017 for false testimonies and forgery and use of forgery, with sentences ranging from one year’s suspended imprisonment to 15 months’ imprisonment. As for his father, a diplomat, he was never prosecuted.

Convicted by default in 2016 in Paris to 25 years in prison, Hassan was finally arrested in Morocco in May 2023, after a dispute near a shopping center. He will be sentenced a year later by the Rabat Assize Court to 20 years in prison for the murder of Mehdi. His lawyers have appealed the decision. A first hearing was held on February 24. "He has to pay... If he gets less than 20 years, I won’t stop there, I’ll continue, no matter what," the victim’s sister insists. Hassan will be informed of his fate on April 7. Inès is waiting for his conviction to mourn. "Maybe I’ll try to live like before. But for now, it’s not possible."