Moroccan Man Acquitted in Arranged Marriage Violence Case

The Bayonne court acquitted the Moroccan on Tuesday for the acts of aggravated violence committed against his wife with whom he married in the context of an arranged marriage by the parents. The case dates back to January 15, 2020, reports Sud Ouest. At dawn, the firefighters pass through the window to free a 21-year-old woman from her prison. She had called for help through the closed door of an apartment in Saint-Pierre-d’Irube. Another fact: one night, the man dragged her through the shattered glass debris of the television on the floor, according to the account of his spouse. The young woman comes out with about ten bruises and a wound on her right arm with seven stitches.

Her husband would have broken her phone, before locking the young woman in the apartment. At the hearing on October 31, the husband gave his version of the facts: "She got up and broke the TV. So I took her phone to do the same. I went out until everyone calmed down. [...] She did all this to herself. Me, I can’t, it’s not possible." The thirty-year-old also claims that his partner had a duplicate of the apartment keys. According to the thirty-year-old, it is a plot hatched by his wife, to avoid the humiliation of a divorce.

In their decision, the judges felt that the facts were not established. Previously, a dismissal had been pronounced in favor of the defendant accused of rapes and sexual assaults by his wife.