Fugitive Sentenced in Morocco for 2011 Paris Murder After Faking Own Death

The Moroccan judges confirmed the sentence handed down in the first instance against Hassan Benhamza, sentencing him to 20 years in prison, with nearly 50,000 euros in damages. Wanted for the murder of Mehdi Ettir in Paris in 2011, the accused had fled to Morocco, then faked his own death. After fourteen years of struggle, the victim’s family finally obtains justice. "You won," Marc informs his wife, Inès Ettir, the victim’s sister, who remained in Paris, a few minutes after Moroccan justice rendered its verdict in this case on Monday, April 21, 2025.

"I cried a lot. Tears of joy. I’ve been fighting for fourteen years... I suffered... In my head, it was 24 hours a day... I had only one goal: for him to pay. I can’t believe it," Inès confides to Le Parisien. A simple argument between the accused and the victim over a dog turned tragic. Mehdi Ettir and Hassan Benhamza, 23 and 22 years old, come to blows in a gymnasium in the Belleville neighborhood on March 26, 2011. The next day, Hassan attacks Mehdi in front of the latter’s home, stabbing him five times with a knife, hitting his heart and lung.

Benhamza fled to Morocco after his crime. His DNA was identified on the murder weapon. Investigators decide to wiretap his family. After four months of investigation, one of Hassan’s brothers announces to the Paris police the death of the murderer, providing as proof a death certificate issued in Rabat and dated June 11, which turns out to be fake. "Upon return of the letters rogatory, I discover in the report all the family’s maneuvers and the false certificate... They shamelessly lied to the investigative services," said Me Sabrina Goldman, lawyer for the Ettir family.

"We’re not dealing with a family trying to protect their brother or son, but with a family that builds a case to make people believe he committed suicide out of grief, while he’s going to the beach and having children with his partner! It’s gone too far, for Mehdi, for his family, and for justice," the lawyer protests. On January 3, 2017, the mother, two brothers, and the girlfriend of the accused are sentenced for forgery, use of forgery, and false testimony to one year suspended prison sentence up to 15 months of firm imprisonment. In the end, no one was convicted for the false certificate produced.

Sentenced in absentia in 2016 in Paris to 25 years in prison, Benhamza was arrested in May 2023 in the Rabat region, after an argument 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 appeal. At the hearing on April 21, the judges of the criminal chamber of the Court of Appeal confirm the 20-year sentence, with 500,000 dirhams in damages. "I am very satisfied with Moroccan justice," rejoices Me Azzedine Faraji, the Ettir family’s lawyer, after the verdict. "Yes, we are very happy with Moroccan justice, say it," adds Inès, Mehdi’s sister.