Two men admitted to the brutal 2003 murder of a Frenchman on Monday when they appeared in court after more than two decades on the run.

The lifeless body of salesman Philippe Charuel was found in February 2003 in a ditch near a road in Gondreville, eastern France.

According to the investigation, two young prostitutes reported being harassed by Charuel as he was leaving a bar near the train station in Nancy on the night of February 19, 2023.

He was then placed in a car, a black BMW, by two men, later identified as Christian Rudd and Vasil Ostas.

After nearly 22 years in hiding, two fugitives who, according to Spanish police, were involved in pimping, were arrested in August 2023 near Barcelona.

They lived in Catalonia under false identities for about 20 years. According to Le ParisienRudd became a father of two children and worked as a doorman in a luxury hotel, and Ostas became a security guard.

Ostas's lawyer Eleonora Duplec, he told France 3that his client has not yet been charged.

“We will know what they will say at the hearing, each side's version,” Dupleix said.

The two men were sentenced in absentia to 30 and 26 years in prison in 2011.

Ostas, 52, a Romanian national, told the court he “accepted” the facts and repeatedly said he was “sorry”.

“I hit him, but I didn't want him to die,” he said of Charuel. “I apologize to the victim's family” and to “French society.”

Ostas' 40-year-old nephew, Rudd, also admitted that he hit the victim “with my hands” in front of the two women and her uncle.

“I saw a lot of violence. It was a shock to me too. I was thinking about (Sharuel's family) a lot all evening,” he said.

Sharuel was described as “a man with no past history” who frequented nightclubs, was recently separated from his wife and was the father of a young child.

Her body was found with 20 abdominal injuries, several broken ribs and “numerous lacerations and injuries” to her face, including a broken jaw and missing teeth, presiding judge Therese Diligente said.

The verdict is expected on Friday.