Moroccan Man Sentenced to 30 Years for Wife’s Murder in France

The sentence was handed down last night by the Assizes of Hérault, where Abdenbi Choua was on trial since last Monday for the murder of his wife Khadija, found dead on September 17, 2014 in her kitchen.

Called to the stand yesterday to convince the jurors of his innocence, the man maintained his version: "I am innocent, I ask you for my freedom, I am innocent," according to the newspaper Midi Libre.

For his part, the lawyer for the victim’s family spoke of absolute horror. "We are facing absolute horror, he disfigures her, he martyrs her, he could not accept that she could have a little freedom, he is an all-powerful and domineering husband who could not accept the departure of this woman (..) I ask you to sentence him to 30 years of criminal detention, this is the sentence that corresponds to this ignoble, savage, inhuman crime."

On the day of the tragedy, he had taken his children to school before going to his workplace. Around 12:30 p.m., he received a call from the teacher telling him that his wife had not come to pick up the children from school. He then claims to have gone home before discovering his wife in a pool of blood, but the police quickly suspected him of being the perpetrator of the murder "because there is no break-in and the husband’s behavior is strange."

"When she arrived from Morocco, she was convinced that she would live in the Western way, but that was not the case. Her freedom was controlled and this is not what she expected," the lawyer for Khadija explained at the beginning of the week to France Bleu.