Moroccan Woman Denies Involvement in Husband’s Brutal Murder in Avignon

More than two years after the opening of the investigation into the death of her husband, found with his throat slit and his body mutilated in November 2021 at his home in the Reine-Jeanne district of Avignon (Vaucluse), Souad is accused of having participated in this murder. The sexagenarian has been indicted for "complicity in murder" and placed in pre-trial detention on March 22, 2024. In early April, before the chamber of investigation responsible for examining her request for release, the retiree denied any involvement in the murder of Mohamed, reports Le Parisien.

Souad married this Moroccan, ten years her senior and divorced in Morocco, in 2015. The lifeless body of the latter was discovered at his home, while the accused was on vacation in Morocco. But before joining the kingdom, she would have declared: "When I return, my husband will be in a coffin." Heard by the investigators, Souad confides that she and her husband lived in fear, after receiving threats and a visit to their home by a certain "Gypsy". However, Souad had hidden from the investigators that she was a victim of domestic violence. A fact later revealed by her doctors.

"People entered the couple’s home before the death of the gentleman, a complaint was filed, then there was the fire of the couple’s vehicle," confirmed the lawyer for the retiree, Me Farid Faryssy, before the chamber of investigation, specifying moreover that Mohamed would have warned before his death "that in the event of a sudden death, his ex-wife and his children would be responsible".

The pre-trial detention of the accused is justified, estimates the public prosecutor, Dominique Sié, based on "the hearing of four witnesses" and "checks that prove that there was a climate of violence in the couple". But so far, the investigators have found no evidence linking Souad to Mohamed’s murder. "I have nothing to do with the death of my husband, I am innocent and unjustly accused by relatives of my husband," claimed the widow. Arguments that were not enough to convince the judges of the chamber of investigation, who decided to keep her in detention.