Brussels Man Sentenced to 24 Years for Brutal Murder of Partner

After his arrest, Abdelkader Bouajaja had told the investigators that he no longer remembered what had really happened that day, since he had taken cocaine. No extenuating circumstances were granted to him given the violence of the murder. The jury and the three professional judges of the court relied on the autopsy performed on the victim’s body, noting "the extreme gravity of the facts" as well as "the violence and the relentlessness shown by the perpetrator".

The jury made its decision also taking into account what the accused did after committing his crime. "He transported the body to the shower, cleaned it with bleach, and then sent text messages to the victim to forge an alibi." Finally, the jury took into account the accused’s criminal record, convicted several times for acts of violence.

During the investigation, it was clearly established that Abdelkader Bouajaja had indeed gone to his partner’s home on the evening of September 3, 2019, that he had argued with her, strangled her, stabbed her, and to erase his tracks, he had moved the victim’s body to the shower and tried to clean the evidence with bleach. For the jury, there are enough elements to prove that the accused acted with the intention to kill.