Suspicion of infidelity leads him to club his wife to death

When this couple married and their home was brightened by the birth of a daughter, they never imagined that everything would change overnight due to suspicions of infidelity.

It’s not easy to find your soul mate. But this young man, aged thirty-three, found one. At least that’s what he thought, he told the three magistrates of the criminal division of the Casablanca Court of Appeal, appearing under arrest for his final hearing. All present noticed that he occasionally turned his head to wave at three women. They were his mother, who was holding her month-old daughter and her two sisters. In effect, he’s not claiming innocence, but trying to convince the court that he lost all control of his nerves when his wife told him she was cheating on him. Was it true or was she just saying it to upset him? Anything is possible. After all, no one but their little daughter, who was fast asleep, witnessed the argument,” the husband told the court, expressing his regret.

Indeed, he was riddled with suspicion, he told the court. He doubted her fidelity, but without proof. Of course, she often went out without informing him of her destination. Sometimes, she’d tell him she was at her mother’s or sister’s, who lived nearby. But he never believed her words, he told the court. Why?” asked the president of the court. He remains silent. Nor has anyone confided in him or whispered in his ear that they’ve seen his wife with anyone. Where did these doubts come from? He, too, had no idea. Because, each time, he tells the court that it was Satan who inspired this bad idea.

Acknowledging his crime, he asserted before the court, the judicial police investigators, the public prosecutor and the examining magistrate that he had not intended to kill her. But, just that he got carried away when she uttered the wrong phrase, namely “Yes, I’m cheating on you”. He looked for a stick in the kitchen and struck her several times, pretending not to hear his little daughter, who woke up sobbing. Finally, he found himself in front of his wife’s lifeless body, lying in a pool of blood.

At the end of the interrogation of the defendant, the representative of the public prosecutor requested a maximum sentence in accordance with the provisions of article 403 of the penal code, which stipulates: “When the wounds or blows or other violence or assaults, carried out voluntarily but without intention to cause death, have nevertheless caused it, the penalty is ten to twenty years’ imprisonment”. On the other hand, the defense lawyer asked that the defendant be granted extenuating circumstances, especially as he had been provoked by the words spoken by the deceased. After deliberation, the court found him guilty of assault and battery resulting in death without intent, and sentenced him to ten years’ imprisonment.