Two men admitted the brutal murder of a Frenchman in 2003 on Monday when they appeared in court after more than 20 years on the run.
The lifeless body of salesman Philippe Charuel was discovered in a roadside ditch in Gondreville, eastern France, in February 2003.
According to the investigation, two young prostitutes reported being bothered by Charuel when he left a bar near the train station in the city of Nancy on the night of February 19, 2023.
He was then taken in a car, a black BMW, by two men, who were later identified as Christian Rad and Vasile Ostas.
After almost 22 years in hiding, the two fugitives, who according to Spanish police were involved with pimps, were arrested near Barcelona in August 2023.
They had been living in Catalonia under a false identity for twenty years. According to Le Parisien, Rad had become the father of two children and worked as a concierge in a luxury hotel, while Ostas had become a security guard.
Ostas’ lawyer, Eléonore Dupleix, told France 3 that her client has still not been charged.
“We’ll find out what they’ll say at the hearing, each party’s version,” Dupleix said.
The two men had already been sentenced in absentia in 2011 to 30 and 26 years in prison respectively.
Ostas, 52, a Romanian citizen, told the court he had “admitted” to the offenses and was “regretful” on numerous occasions.
“I hit him, but I didn’t want him to be dead,” he said of Charuel. “I ask forgiveness from the victim’s family” and “from French society.”
Rad, Ostas’ 40-year-old cousin, also admitted hitting the victim “with my hands” in front of the two women and his uncle.
“I saw a lot of violence. It was a shock for me too. I thought a lot about Charuel’s family all evening,” he said.
Charuel was described as “a man without a past” who frequented nightclubs, had recently separated from his wife and was the father of a young child.
His body was found with 20 wounds to the abdomen, several broken ribs and “numerous wounds and injuries” to the face, including a broken jaw and missing teeth, chairman Therese Diligent said.
The verdict is expected on Friday.
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