In accordance with the prosecution’s requisitions, the charge of assassination was finally retained. The ex-husband of a woman burned alive in 2021, near Bordeaux, was referred for murder to the Gironde Assize Court, according to a source close to this resounding case for which police officers had been sanctioned.
On May 4, 2021 in Mérignac, Chahinez Daoud, 31, mother of three children, two of whom were from a first union, was shot in the legs and then burned alive in the street, in front of her home, two months after having filed a complaint – poorly recorded by the police – against her spouse from whom she was separated.
Mounir Boutaa, 44, a mason by profession with dual French-Algerian nationality, had just been released from prison after a conviction for domestic violence, in June 2020, to 18 months in prison, 9 of which were suspended. He was released in December with an obligation to provide care and a ban on contact with his wife.
The victim did not have a serious danger telephone and her husband was not given an anti-reconciliation bracelet upon his release, the device being “not effective”, the authorities then indicated. The man was arrested half an hour after the events in a neighboring town, carrying a hunting rifle, an automatic pistol and a cartridge belt.
The initial charge, intentional homicide, was subsequently reclassified as murder at the request of the civil party. He was retained by the investigating judge, in accordance with the prosecution’s requisitions, in his indictment order dated February 28, which the defendant appealed according to Elena Badescu, one of his lawyers. “We have always indicated that the premeditation in this case seemed perfectly characterized to us,” said Julien Plouton, counsel for the victim’s parents.
In addition to expert opinions on the weapons, the prosecution relies on testimonies and hearings which “dismiss the attributability of the crime to a third party”: the accused “was alone near the victim at the time of the facts”. According to the investigation, after having spotted the place two days before using a new vehicle so as not to be recognized, he returned there on the morning of May 6 armed with lighters, several weapons and a can of gasoline, and had waited there all day before taking action around 6:00 p.m.
Mistakes and errors of assessment, according to the IGPN
Mounir Boutaa, whose discernment was described as “impaired” by the psychiatric experts during the investigation, admits to having acted voluntarily, with the aim of “punishing” the victim, of “leaving traces” on him and of “making him the fear of his life,” underlines the indictment.
The case led the government to launch an inspection mission on the conditions of release and monitoring of the ex-husband. She had noted a series of “failures”, while an investigation by the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) pointed out mistakes and errors of assessment. Five police officers were subject to disciplinary sanctions, including the departmental police director of Gironde and the Mérignac commissioner in office at the time.
The two officials had failed to inform their superiors and the inspection mission that the police officer who incorrectly recorded the victim’s complaint, on March 15, 2021, had himself been sentenced to eight months in prison with suspended probation, for violence marital relations, the previous February 10. The latter was removed from the police force. The family launched a request for compensation last year for “gross negligence” against the State, which is still ongoing.
In 2021, 122 women were killed by their spouse or ex-spouse. On average over recent years, a feminicide occurs every three days in France.
2024-03-09 07:23:39
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