Brussels Woman Murdered by Husband in Domestic Violence Tragedy, Marking 17th Femicide This Year

"Ali was really crazy. Rachida was very afraid of him. He had promised her that if she left him, she would leave here feet first... It was premeditated." These are testimonies from some of the couple’s neighbors, who preferred to remain anonymous for fear of the violent husband’s wrath. Rachida’s only sin was wanting to escape the marital home, away from her husband’s violence. But unluckily. Rachida B. was beaten and stabbed in the heart by Ali Tatou, 68. Neighbors describe him as a "madman". One of his neighbors was able to raise the alarm, but when the emergency services arrived at the scene, it was already over. Rachida was no longer alive, reports La Capitale.

Eleven years ago, Rachida came from Morocco, after the death of her first husband with whom she had a 28-year-old son who remained in Morocco. "She had remarried to Ali who is of Algerian origin. They had been together for nine years. After their first year of marriage, he had started to be violent with her, but she didn’t really dare to talk about it. She was a cleaning lady and he no longer worked. This time, she had decided to leave him for good. She had found an apartment in Molenbeek. On the day of her murder, she had just finished the work there with her brother and she was supposed to move in the next day," testifies one of her friends who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation.

The victim’s family and friends remember the number of times she was hospitalized after being beaten by her husband. But she finally found the strength to leave. A decision that would prove fatal to her. Abdelouahid, aged 50, is Rachida’s brother. He recounts that this was not the first time she had decided to leave her husband. But the latter had begged her and she had forgiven him without knowing what was awaiting her. "This time, she had decided to leave him for good and, following the threats he was making to her, she had gone back to the police to file a statement a week before he killed her. On the day of the incident, she had only been home for ten minutes when he took her life. I’m sure it was premeditated. It’s as if he had killed our whole family, I can’t tell you the state our mother and Rachida’s son are in."

Rachida lived in fear of being killed by her husband and would almost barricade herself in her room. "I saw her face at the morgue: it was unrecognizable, I know it’s her because I know it’s her, but not because I recognized her; it was really to that extent," adds Rahimo, her 57-year-old cousin.

According to the spokeswoman for the Hal-Vilvorde public prosecutor’s office, Carol Vercarre, despite the violent husband’s tricks to avoid prosecution, an investigating judge was appointed on a charge of murder and he was indicted and remanded in custody on Sunday, October 17. The public prosecutor’s office specified that the accused slit his wrists after the facts in an attempt to make it appear that he had killed his wife in self-defense.