Mother Convicted of Killing Disabled Daughters Faces Retrial in French Court

On June 20, 2024, Naïma Bel Allam, a former Moroccan-born accountant, accused of aggravated voluntary homicide, had been sentenced to 14 years in prison by the Lot-et-Garonne Assize Court. Dissatisfied with this verdict, she appealed. A second trial will therefore open on Monday, March 24 before the Gers Assize Court, at the Auch courthouse. It will continue until Thursday, March 27. The defense of the accused will no longer be ensured by Sophie Grolleau, currently in training to become a magistrate, and Patrick Lamarque. It is lawyer Jean-François Renaudie who will be the counsel for the accused. On the civil party side, Sylvie Brussiau will represent the father of Inès and Nawal. Lawyer Virginie Belacel will represent Naïma Bel Allam’s mother and brother, while Sandrine Derisbourg will assist the association La Mouette.

According to the Specialized Institute of Education for the Multiply Disabled (Isep) in Tonneins (Lot-et-Garonne), which had welcomed them during the day, her two daughters aged 12 and 13, born with malformations, have been missing since December 7, 2016. Five months later, the Childhood and Family Directorate of the Departmental Council had reported their disappearance. The MRE was arrested, placed in custody, prosecuted for "abandonment of minors" and incarcerated in September 2017. Her indictment was changed to "aggravated voluntary homicide" in January 2018.

At the time, investigators had just discovered a "brownish" stain at the Nérac home. The searches carried out for a week in February 2022 by about thirty soldiers, gendarmes and divers from the gendarmerie in a wooded area a few kilometers from the family home were not fruitful. Naïma will be released in November 2021, but she has not completely gotten out of trouble. The divergent versions before the investigators regarding her daughters bring this abandoned mother back to justice. She had claimed to have entrusted her daughters to a Moroccan couple at a highway rest area in Spain. A version contradicted by the investigators.