Brussels Man Arrested for Brutal Attack on Ex-Wife During Lockdown

The facts took place, on Monday, April 13, at the home of his ex-wife, a 39-year-old woman, rue Osseghem in Molenbeek. During the lockdown, she and her son received the unexpected and unpleasant visit of her ex-husband. Mohamed Daly, 34, from Berchem-Ste-Agathe, held a duplicate of the building’s keys. Once inside, he locks the child in a cellar, goes upstairs, knife in hand, strikes the young woman in the head, specifically in the neck and face, before fleeing. The victim was admitted to the emergency room.

On Tuesday, the aggressor was arrested. According to Stéphanie Lagasse, spokeswoman for the Brussels public prosecutor’s office, the judge indicted him and placed him under arrest warrant. "She is disfigured. The way he hit her, it was to kill her. We could have avoided such things if the police and justice had done what was necessary, we deplore. [...] Psychologically, she is devastated, destroyed. She will have to live her whole life with this destroyed face. Scars like these will not go away."

Long before the couple’s separation in 2015, the young woman was already living in endless hell. Her ex-husband beat her constantly while she was pregnant. After their separation, the violence did not stop. The woman had actually filed numerous complaints for harassment, assault and battery and death threats for five years.

In May 2016, Mohamed Daly was deprived of his liberty and taken before an investigating judge. He will be released under conditions, such as that of looking for a job. But the violence towards his ex-wife had resumed with a vengeance until his arrest on April 14.