Spanish Court Reduces Sentence for Moroccan Woman Who Killed Ill Husband in Ceuta

The 40-year-old Moroccan woman, mother of three children, killed her husband, Abdelmalik, who was ill, by suffocating him with a scarf. At the first trial, the jury concluded that the defendant had attacked her husband by surprise, who was not able to defend himself, and sentenced her to 21 years in prison for murder with the aggravating circumstance of betrayal. A sentence that was reduced to 13 years in prison by the Court, which did not consider the aggravating circumstance, according to El Plural.

To read: article 46793

"There is no evidence of betrayal, since it cannot be proven that the victim was attacked by surprise and that he was unable to defend himself," the Court stated in its ruling. The only relevant factual data is that the defendant took advantage of her husband’s poor physical condition, who suffered from asthma, the Court argued, stressing that this circumstance is not enough to conclude that the victim did not defend himself.