Two men admitted to the brutal 2003 murder of a French man on Monday when they appeared in court after more than two decades on the run.
The lifeless body of salesman Philippe Charuel was discovered in February 2003 in a roadside ditch in Gondreville, eastern France.
According to the investigation, two young prostitutes reported having been disturbed by Charuel as he left a bar near the train station in the city of Nancy on the night of February 19, 2023.
He was then taken away in a car, a black BMW, by two men, later identified as Christian Rad and Vasile Ostas.
After nearly 22 years in hiding, the two fugitives, involved in pimping according to the Spanish police, were arrested in August 2023 near Barcelona.
They had been living in Catalonia for around twenty years, under false identities. 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 had still not been indicted.
“We will know what they will say at the hearing, each side’s version,” Dupleix said.
The two men had already been sentenced in absentia in 2011 to 30 and 26 years in prison.
Ostas, 52, a Romanian national, told the court he had “admitted” the facts and said he was “sorry” several times.
“I hit him but I didn’t want him to die,” he said of Charuel. “I ask forgiveness from the victim’s family” and “from French society”.
Rad, Ostas’ 40-year-old nephew, also admitted to hitting the victim “with my hands”, in the presence 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 with no 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 his abdomen, several broken ribs and “numerous wounds and wounds” to his face, including a fractured jaw and missing teeth, presiding judge Thérèse Diligent said.
The verdict is expected on Friday.
