Moroccan Man Jailed for Domestic Violence and Animal Abuse in France

The facts had occurred from June 1 to September 14. Repeated domestic violence. Around 4 a.m. on September 14, his five-month pregnant partner took refuge at a friend’s house in Dreux and called for help, reports L’Écho républicain. "He attacked my rabbit. He took it out of its cage and threw it to the ground [...] He hit me everywhere," she recounts.

In their report, the police who went to their apartment noticed that there were traces of blood in the living room and bathroom. The bruises and injuries in many parts of the body are irrefutable evidence of the violence suffered. The veterinarian who euthanized the rabbit diagnosed a broken spine. "Intense, unimaginable, unbearable violence," the public prosecutor indignantly.

At the bar, the defendant denies the facts. He explains that it is a neighbor, "a tall black man who sells drugs" who is the origin of the traces of blows on the body of his companion. "She was drunk and I picked her up in that state on the landing," says the man who had already been sentenced to a prison sentence for violence against this same partner, last November. Statements that are far from convincing the presiding judge. "In this hypothesis, how do you explain the traces of blood inside the apartment?" "I don’t know. I just squeezed her arms to calm her down," the thirty-year-old replies.

The verdict is in: the man is sentenced to one year in prison, plus the revocation of two months of suspended sentence, with a committal order at the hearing. "Long live Morocco, long live Mohammed VI," he reacts.