Paris (AFP) — An Algerian woman went on trial in France Friday accused of raping, torturing and murdering a 12-year-old girl in Paris in a case that horrified the country.

Dahbia Benkired, now aged 27, was detained after Lola Daviet went missing in the northeast of the capital three years ago, and her body was then found in a trunk in the lobby of the building where her father and mother worked as caretakers.

Conservative and far-right politicians seized on the case to call for better immigration law enforcement, after Benkired was found to have overstayed a student visa and failed to comply with a notice to leave France.

But the victim’s mother urged politicians to stop exploiting her daughter’s death.

The girl’s family sat in court on Friday, wearing T-shirts with the words: “You wer

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