Bordeaux, France:

A French court on Friday sentenced a man to 30 years in prison for killing his former partner, who had repeatedly warned authorities that she was in danger after years of abuse.

The 31-year-old victim, Sandra Pla, was found in a pool of blood at her home in Bordeaux, southwest France, in July 2021 with around 50 stab wounds, particularly to her neck and face.

Prosecutors had sought the 30-year sentence in a case that shocked the country, where on average a woman is killed every three days.

Pla had several times reported her former partner as being abusive and harassing her, even writing a letter to President Emmanuel Macron to seek help.

Mickael Falou, 40, had admitted to killing his former partner. 

But during the trial that began Wednesday, he denied premeditated murder and said he could not remember the moment he stabbed her.

Prosecutor Veronique Compan argued, however, that “he intended to go and kill Sandra Pla. He waited for her, he surprised her, he terrified her, and he killed her.”

Falou remained impassive as his conviction was announced.

“Justice has been done,” Pla’s mother, Annie Libourel, said after the verdict. 

But “nothing will bring me back my daughter.”.

‘Should I just wait?’

In 2018, a year after the birth of their daughter, Pla began to confide in those close to her that Falou was being abusive.

She left him in January 2021 and then obtained full custody of their daughter in May 2021.

She had for months complained that the father of her child was harassing her.

Compan said Pla’s murder was a clear case of femicide-the killing of a woman because of her gender, often by a partner or ex-partner-and stressed the importance of fighting “against this plague.”.

Three days before her death, Falou had been arrested and then released under judicial supervision, with an injunction to stay away from Pla.

The prosecutor said that the fact the murder occurred while Falou was supposedly being monitored looked “terrible” for the judiciary.

Elsa Crozatier, the lawyer who has been representing the mother, stepfather, and brother of the victim, said this was a predictable femicide.

She read an extract from a letter the victim wrote to the French president: “His rage is growing and increasingly threatening… Should I just wait around for something bad to happen to me?”

‘Desperate’

One of Falou’s lawyers, Elena Badescu, argued, however, that her client had not killed Pla “because she was a woman” and that he was not possessive or jealous.

Several witnesses on Wednesday recounted how terrified the victim was.

Her parents had for a few months even moved in with her, and she had installed a doorbell with a security camera.

An expert on Thursday described Falou as being “incapable of empathy” and had been trying to portray himself as a victim.

Falou said he had broken into Pla’s house at around 4:30 am on the day he killed her and hidden until she returned after taking their daughter to school.

“I was totally desperate. I was obsessed with showing that they (her family) had made up false evidence” to get custody, he told the court.

In his closing statement, Falou said he was “haunted” by having killed his ex-partner, but between two sobs, he said he felt “misunderstood.”.

He also testified that when hiding outside Pla’s home, he did not remember seeing leave a man who had spent the night with her-though investigators said he surely must have seen.

“Amnesiac when it suits him,” said Daniel Del Risco, lawyer for the victim’s father, adding that Falou “wanted to totally obliterate her.”.

In 2023, 96 women were killed by their partners or ex-partners in France, a drop of 19 percent from 2022, according to the latest figures from the interior ministry.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Representative image.
| Photo Credit: Adrian Swancar/Unsplash

Around 4% of the world’s population has suffered post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at some point, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

PTSD is often associated with war veterans, survivors of sexual violence and typically anybody who has lived through a life-threatening situation. They often experience anxiety, flashbacks, and nightmares.

But health workers have also recorded PTSD symptoms among people who have suffered repeated bullying, emotional abuse, and/or neglect. These individuals include children bullied or gaslighted since a young age and someone who has suffered domestic abuse for many years. They are said to have complex PTSD, or cPTSD.

For these individuals, flashbacks and nightmares are only the tip of the iceberg of symptoms. As a result of the lack of a nourishing living environment, they have been known to develop a crippled sense of self. Apart from anxiety issues rooted in a negative self-image and/or issues with self-confidence, they also display a difficulty trusting other people and trouble maintaining friendships or romantic relationships.

cPTSD was listed as a standalone diagnosis in the 11th edition of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, or ICD-11, in 2018. In 2019, the WHO also recognised cPTSD as a separate mental health disorder.

We don’t yet know how prevalent cPTSD is in the general population. Researchers have estimated it is 1-8%.

Guwahati:

A woman has been arrested in Assam’s Jorhat district for allegedly killing her husband and eventually setting the body on fire, the police said on Saturday.

A police officer said that the woman’s minor son was also apprehended along with her.

According to the police, the woman confessed to the killing of her husband. She claimed that she was a victim of domestic violence.

Shwetank Mishra, Superintendent of Police of Jorhat district, said: “As the woman’s son is a minor, he would be investigated under Child in Conflict with Law (CCL) of the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act, 2015.”

“In her confession, the lady claimed that her husband used to physically assault her every day in an drunken state and to save her son, she took the extreme step of killing her husband,” the police officer said.

The victim was identified as Prahalad Soren. He was a tea garden worker.

The incident happened in Murmuria tea estate in Jorhat’s Mariani area on late Thursday night.

The local residents claimed that they saw Soren’s wife burning something near their house, following which they informed the police.

Later, the police reached the spot and recovered Soren’s half-burnt body.

Police said that they have filed a case against the woman under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The trial of a former Kazakhstan minister charged with beating his wife to death has become the talking point across the nation, with some seeing it as a litmus test of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s promise to build a fairer, more equitable society.

Saltanat Nukenova, 31, was found dead last November in a restaurant owned by a relative of her husband Kuandyk Bishimbayev, where the couple had spent almost a whole day and the previous night. She had been unconscious for hours.

In a recent hearing, the court was shown 8-hour-long footage of 44-year-old Kuandyk Bishimbayev, a former economy minister, beating his wife Saltanat Nukenova. The surveillance footage shows Bishimbayev kicking and punching the 31-year-old repeatedly in a restaurant owned by his family.

He is then seen dragging her by the hair to a separate room, where there were no cameras.  

When she tried to escape by hiding in the toilet, Bishimbayev “broke down the door, pulled her out, and continued beating her,” the prosecutor said during the trial.

“He grabbed her by the throat after dragging her out of the toilet. This is when she lost consciousness,” the prosecutor added.

As she lay on the floor, covered in her blood, Bishimbayev dialled a fortune-teller, who assured him his wife would be fine. The ambulance arrived 12 hours later, and the medical staff declared her dead at the scene.

According to a coroner’s report, Saltanat died from brain trauma. One of her nasal bones was broken and there were multiple bruises on her face, head, arms, and hands.

Bishimbayev is charged with torture and murder with extreme violence and faces up to 20 years in prison. The murder trial, which is being livestreamed on social media, has gripped public attention and sparked a debate about gender equality and domestic violence.

Many Kazakhs see Bishimbayev as a typical member of the country’s wealthy ruling elite and fear that, even if found guilty, he may somehow escape proper punishment – as was the case with a previous conviction.

Bishimbayev was arrested in 2017 on bribery charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison but walked free after less than three years behind bars thanks to an amnesty and parole.

Mumbai:

The Bombay High Court has upheld a trial court order directing a husband to pay a Rs 3-crore compensation and monthly maintenance of Rs 1.5 lakh to his estranged wife, observing a factor that can be considered for deciding the payout quantum is the impact of acts of domestic violence on the aggrieved person.

The amount is granted to the woman as a recompense not only for physical injuries but also mental torture and emotional distress, noted Justice Sharmila Deshmukh in her March 22 order in the domestic violence case.

“For obvious reasons, there cannot be a straight jacket formula applicable to all and the quantum will differ according to the facts of each case. In my view, while determining the quantum of compensation, one of the factors which can be considered is the impact of the acts of domestic violence on the aggrieved person,” the high court observed.

Justice Sharmila held that the trial court’s finding was based on a discussion that there were continuous acts of domestic violence from 1994 to 2017, which cannot be faulted.

The couple tied the knot in Mumbai in January 1994 and later moved to the USA, where, another marriage ceremony was held.

In 2005, the duo returned to Mumbai and started living in a house jointly owned by them. However, in 2008, the wife moved to her mother’s house, while the husband went back to the US in 2014.

In July 2017, the woman filed a case against her husband under provisions of the Domestic Violence Act (DVA) before a metropolitan magistrate’s court. The woman alleged that, during their honeymoon, the husband called her “second hand” over her previous broken engagement.

In the USA, she was subjected to continuous acts of domestic violence, such as suspicion about her character, making false allegations of illicit relationships with other men and beating her up till she confessed to the same, the woman alleged.

The trial court noted the evidence of the woman as regards incidents of domestic violence which were corroborated by her mother, brother and uncle.

In its order passed in January 2023, the trial court held that the woman was subjected to domestic violence at the hands of her husband and directed him to pay Rs 3 crore as compensation to her.

It ordered the man to find a suitable accommodation – a residential flat of at least 1,000 square feet carpet area – for his wife in Mumbai’s Dadar area or alternatively pay Rs 75,000 towards house rent.

He was also directed to return all jewellery (‘streedhan’) and other belongings to the woman and pay her Rs 1,50,000 per month towards maintenance.

Aggrieved by the trial court’s order, the man filed a revision petition in the high court.

The single bench judge, while upholding the trial court’s order, said the compensation is to be granted for the injuries, including mental torture and emotional distress, caused by the acts of the accused.

It was of the view that although the abuse will necessarily result in mental torture and emotional distress for the aggrieved person, the gravity will differ from person to person.

“In the present case, admittedly both the parties are well educated and highly placed in their workplace and in social life. That being the social standing, the acts of domestic violence would be greatly felt by the woman as it would affect her self worth,” the court noted.

The high court said that the woman has been subjected to physical, economic, mental and emotional abuse and has to reside with her mother for nine years. The husband left the woman and went to the USA without making any provision for her.

The bench noted that the magistrate has granted the compensation considering the entire facts and circumstances and decided the quantum by considering the status of the parties and income.

The trial court came to its finding based on the discussion that there were continuous acts of domestic violence from 1994 to 2017, which cannot be faulted with, the high court said.

“I don’t find any reason in exercise of revisional jurisdiction of this court, to interfere with the impugned judgment and order. Revision application stands dismissed,” the judge added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)