A French-Algerian man went on trial in France on Monday for burning to death his wife in 2021, a case that shocked the public and sparked heavy criticism of police for failing to take adequate measures to protect her.
Mounir Boutaa, now 48, stalked his Algerian-born wife Chahinez Daoud following their separation, and even bought a van he parked outside her house near Bordeaux in southwestern France, which he used to watch her without being detected.
On May 4, 2021, he attacked her in the street, shot her in both legs, poured gasoline on her and set her on fire.
Photo: AFP
A neighbor hearing the screams tried to intervene, but it was too late for Daoud. When her body was recovered, it was completely charred. She was 31 and a mother of three.
Boutaa, who filmed part of the horrific scene, was arrested shortly afterward.
“I wanted to burn her for all the things that she and the judiciary did,” he told police after his arrest.
He denied any intention to kill his wife, saying he had wanted instead to “punish her,” burn her “a little” and make sure she would “keep marks.”
Boutaa, a builder, had been released from prison at the end of 2020 after serving time for choking his wife and threatening her with a knife.
He had already been accused of domestic violence against a previous partner.
The court issued a restraining order, saying he could not approach Daoud, but they started living together again until March 2021, when she filed another police complaint against her husband.
Investigators later found the handling of her complaint by a police officer — himself found guilty of domestic violence — severely lacking and opened an inquiry into a series of police “failures.”
The victim was not given a “serious danger phone” that allows women to alert the authorities directly, and her husband was not made to wear an electronic bracelet that could have allowed police to detect his movements in her vicinity.
The investigation resulted in sanctions against five police officers. The victim’s family has since also launched a case against the French state for “serious failures.”
Dozens of people demonstrated outside the courthouse to protest against the handling of the case.
“We’re here mostly to speak out against the authorities, the government that fails to do its job,” said one demonstrator who declined to give her name. “Especially against the police, who don’t protect women.”
There were 96 cases of domestic femicide in France in 2023, 19 percent fewer than the previous year, according to French Ministry of the Interior data.
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
Cannabis-based medicines have shown little evidence of effectiveness for treating most mental health and substance-use disorders, according to a large review of past studies published in a major medical journal on Monday. Medical use of cannabinoids has been expanding, including in the US, Canada and Australia, where many patients report using cannabis products to manage conditions such as anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and sleep problems. Researchers reviewed data from 54 randomized clinical trials conducted between 1980 and May last year involving 2,477 participants for their analysis published in The Lancet. The studies assessed cannabinoids as a primary treatment for mental disorders or substance-use
NATIONWIDE BLACKOUT: US President Donald Trump cut off Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba, strangling the Caribbean island’s already antiquated grid Cuba’s national electric grid collapsed on Monday, the nation’s grid operator said, leaving about 10 million people without power amid a US-imposed oil blockade that has crippled the already obsolete generation system. Grid operator UNE on social media said that it is investigating the causes of the blackout, the latest in a series of widespread outages that last for hours or days and that this weekend sparked a rare violent protest in the communist-run nation. Officials ruled out a major power plant failure, but had still not pinpointed the root cause of the grid collapse, suggesting a problem with transmission. Officials said that
‘HEALTH ISSUE’: More than 250 women are hospitalized every day due to complications from unsafe abortions, and about three die, a study showed Jane had been bleeding heavily for days before finally seeking help, not from a hospital, but from the man who sold her the pills meant to end her six-week pregnancy. Abortions are strictly outlawed in the mainly Catholic Philippines, forcing women to turn to a patchwork of providers operating in the online shadows. While rare in practice, Philippine law allows for prison terms of up to six years for abortion patients and providers, leaving thousands of Filipinas to search for solutions in online forums where unlicensed sellers promote abortifacients. “It was very painful, as if my abdomen was being twisted,” said Jane, whose
RSS