Moroccan Man on Trial for Domestic Violence in Bayonne, France

It all started on January 15, 2020. At dawn, firefighters climb through the window to free a 21-year-old woman from her prison, reports Sud Ouest. She had called for help through the closed door of an apartment in Saint-Pierre-d’Irube. "The lady highlighted facts of rape, forced fellatio to the point of suffocation, sexual assault, with extreme details and extreme violence," lists Emmanuelle Adoul, the president of the Bayonne court. These were not retained at the end of the investigation." But the husband did not completely get off the hook. After a requalification of the facts, he appeared on Tuesday before the court for aggravated violence. The court evokes a night of violence for a television that was too noisy.

The victim, a woman who arrived from Morocco, was absent from the hearing. According to her explanations, her husband, a Moroccan who arrived in France at the age of 14 with whom she married in the context of an arranged marriage by the parents, dragged her in the shards of glass of the exploded television on the floor. She gets away 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 bar, the husband gives 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 husband also claims that his partner had a duplicate of the apartment keys.

The husband cries conspiracy. "In hindsight, it was obvious that she was only looking for the papers," he claims. "I was blind, I loved her. The day before, I had told her that we were going to divorce. We no longer got along. She had told me: ’you’ll see what’s going to happen to you.’ She planned everything." Facts contradicted by the lawyer, Émilie Lemiere, of his wife. According to her, her client is a woman under the influence. "She had no identity card, no bank card, no mailbox keys, not even the apartment keys, not even a health card. Nothing. The neighbor had never seen her. She didn’t exist," she adds, claiming that her client works and is not dependent on the state.

"The injuries are consistent with the victim’s statements. The forensic doctor considers self-mutilation unlikely," recalls Stéphanie Veyssière, the prosecutor who requested eight months of suspended prison. "We didn’t do much in this case," denounces Philippe Saladin, the defense lawyer, who pleads for acquittal. The court will hand down its verdict on November 14.