Trial Begins for Moroccan Man with Mental Illness Accused of Stabbing Wife in Nice

The defendant, a 53-year-old man treated for mental disorders, has been the focus of experts since last Monday at the Assize Court of Nice, observes Nice Matin. He stabbed his wife while she was sleeping.

The facts date back to July 12, 2017, around 2:45 a.m., in the old building where the couple lived, at 18 rue des Orangers. The victim, named Fatima, aged 23, was taking a nap with her sick son, when Kamel Berouag, her husband, appeared with a kitchen knife in his hand and struck her in the temple. The knife broke but Fatima, still alive, struggled. With all her strength, she squeezed her attacker who struck her again with a saucepan lid, immediately stained with blood.

One of the couple’s neighbors, Thierry Bassene, 36, alerted by the noises and desperate calls of Kamel Berouag’s eldest daughter, intervenes and with difficulty restrains the aggressor. "I regret what happened. I was not myself when I hit her," Kamel Berouag, a mechanic, repeatedly replies to the first questions of the court president, Patrick Veron, on Monday afternoon, at the time of his appearance.

For the moment, given his history, the case of the defendant is worrying the three psychiatric experts called upon to enlighten the court and the jurors. Because in reality, it is a matter of determining whether Kamel Berouag is fully or partially responsible for his criminal act.

Indeed, in 1992, this same assize court had sentenced Kamel to seven years in prison for "fatal blows". In 2000, he was again sentenced to three years in prison for "supply and transfer of narcotics". This time, the defendant faces life imprisonment. The verdict is expected this Wednesday.