Moroccan Mason Sentenced to Life for Brutal Double Murder of Wife and Sister-in-Law in Gard

The verdict has been handed down. Following the requisition of the public prosecutor, Nathalie Wethe, the Gard Assize Court sentenced Mohammed Ouhaddou to life imprisonment with a security period of 18 years, as well as the withdrawal of parental authority over his daughter. The Court based its decision on the forensic report. According to this report, the defendant inflicted 14 stab wounds, including two fatal ones, on his wife Halima Zerhouni, and three, including a slit throat, on Fatima, his sister-in-law.

At the origin of this double homicide, a dispute that occurred in a context of separation. Victim of violence according to her relatives, Halima wanted to separate from her husband and feared that he would take their 10-month-old daughter to Morocco. She had left the family home in Cavaillon to take refuge at her sister’s house in the Gard. Her husband did not accept the separation. On May 5, 2023, this Moroccan craftsman had gone to Salles-du-Gardon. An argument had then broken out between him and his sister-in-law. In the aftermath, his wife intervened. The irreparable was committed: a double homicide in the presence of their daughter.

The scene took place in the presence of a witness, an aesthetician, with whom the wife of Mohammed had an appointment. She testified before the Gard Assize Court. She stated that she had seen Halima move and that she would have asked the accused to call for help, but she would have been met with Mohammed’s refusal. The latter would have ordered her to take him to the Alès police station, while threatening her with a knife.