The woman killed a doppelganger to fake her own death. When she was sentenced to prison, no one told the victim’s family.

• A woman in Germany was sentenced to life in prison for murdering her doppelgänger in 2022.

• The victim’s family in Algeria learned of the verdict three weeks later.

• They say they were kept in the dark during this ordeal.

The woman and her accomplice were sentenced to life in prison after an 11-month murder trial in Germany that made headlines around the world.

The case ended with their conviction Murder of victim in August 2022, described as doppelganger of her killer.

But the family of Khadidja O., the victim, claims they were kept in the dark while they were hundreds of kilometers away in Algeria.

“We didn’t know anything,” Khadidja’s younger sister, Ahlem Boudjemaâ, told Business Insider about the trial.

She only learned about the verdict from a BI reporter contacted three weeks after the verdict was issued.

The language barrier and complex family situation prevented German authorities from achieving their goal of communicating with the murder victim’s relatives abroad.

“The Doppelgänger Murder”

Khadidja, 23 years old beauty influencer who lived in Heilbronn, Germany, was killed two and a half years ago.

Although her father participated in the criminal proceedings for her murder, the family with whom she had been in contact in Algeria was excluded from the case.

Prosecutors said Khadidja was tracked on Instagram by a woman who looked like her who planned to fake her own death.

They said a 25-year-old Iraqi-German woman, identified only as Shahraban K., arranged the murder.

(In Germany it is customary to refer to victims and defendants only by their first names and initials.)

Prosecutors said she and an accomplice identified as Sheqir K. lured Khadidja into a trap by pretending to offer her free beauty treatments.

For a time, the authorities actually believed that it was Shahraban who was killed.

In August 2022, police discovered a bloody body with dozens of stab wounds and initially identified it as hers.

However, a later autopsy revealed that the body was that of Khadidji, who police said bore a “striking resemblance” to Shahraban.

This discovery led to Shahraban, and later Sheqir, being named as murder suspects. The assassination received wide media coverage and became widely known as “the murder of a doppelgänger.”

Halfway through the trial, prosecutors accused him of this Shahraban had previously tried to hire someone to murder a relative.

Ultimately, both defendants were found guilty of murder, and Shahraban also faced an additional conviction for attempting to incite the murder of her brother-in-law.

Thomas Schlappa, spokesman for the district court in Ingolstadt, confirmed that both defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment on December 19.

He said Shahraban’s case was considered so serious that probation was “not an option.”

Left in the dark

The victim’s father, who lives in Germany and has had no contact with his Algerian family since the disputed divorce, was represented in court.

The rest of Khadidja’s family in Oran, Algeria, had no legal representation and received little information throughout the process.

They said they didn’t learn about the verdict until January 8, 2025, almost three weeks later, after Business Insider sent them the news.

“I don’t know why they did this to us,” Boudjemaâ, the younger sister, told BI of German authorities having previously said relatives deserved access to the information.

Nevertheless, Khadidja’s Algerian family felt left in the dark throughout the entire process.

“Every day I waited for news, but nothing new,” Boudjemaâ said.

Due to this situation, they felt left aside – they say that even the news of Khadidja’s death reached them after 10 days.

Boudjemaâ says she was contacted by Khadidja’s friends on social media and had to break the news to her mother.

(The state prosecutor’s office in Ingolstadt disputes this, saying records show that the family in Algeria was informed of the murder.)

The mother, Bouch, told BI last July how she felt German authorities did little to help her. She said they provided an email address which turned out to be incorrect.

Frustrated by the lack of information, Bouch, who became disabled after approx cerebral hemorrhage a few years ago she went on a fact-finding mission to Germany, but she didn’t learn much.

Veronika Grieser from the prosecutor’s office in Ingolstadt described the lack of communication as a misunderstanding in the statements addressed to BI at that time.

She said prosecutors usually try to provide information about significant developments in the trial when relatives ask about it.

“We very much regret that the victim’s mother believes that the authorities have not been properly informed,” she said. “Of course, the victim’s relatives have the right to information about the status of the proceedings and, of course, the dates of the main hearing.”

This week, the prosecutor’s office said that no one from the Algerian family had contacted its office.

Schlappa of the Ingolstadt District Court told BI in an email that the outcome of the proceedings was announced in a press release and seemed to suggest the exclusion of the Algerian family due to lack of legal representation.

“The victim’s father was a co-plaintiff at the main trial and was represented by a court-appointed lawyer,” he said. “It is not known to what extent the father has or had contact with relatives in Algeria.”

When news of the verdict reached Algeria, Boudjemaâ’s reaction to the verdict was conflicting.

“I don’t know if there is justice,” she said. “My sister is dead, she’s gone and she’s not coming back.”

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