A Moroccan family from Bergen op Zoom narrowly escaped a major drama in the fall of 2021. That turned out to be Monday in the court in Breda. Father Khalid El M. (60) was completely crazy and first tried to stab his wife and then one of his sons to death. Thanks to their fierce resistance, mother and son managed to survive the attack.
In court this Monday was a quiet, older Moroccan man. You couldn’t tell from anything that almost two years ago he was a great danger to his wife, two sons and his two daughters in their house on Kleine Beerstraat in Bergen op Zoom.
Potato peeler
That night, Khalid thought his wife was cheating and she was pregnant and went completely crazy. He went to the kitchen and picked up a potato peeler. He grabbed his wife by the hair and tried to stab her neck numerous times. Meanwhile he shouted that he wanted to kill her. One of the sons managed to prevent that and then Khalid fought him. Both mother and son suffered stab and laceration injuries.
The neighbors came to the shouting and pulled father and son, who were now outside, apart. They took mother and son to their house and the father went back to his own house. The son and daughter who were still inside were so scared of their father that they jumped out of the upstairs window. The daughter broke her heel bone and the son suffered abrasions.
Khalid fled the back of the house and reported barefoot to the police station a few miles away. He appeared confused, officers said.
Psychosis
Khalid can’t remember the day of the attack on his family, he said through his interpreter. It turned out in court that the 60-year-old man had ended up in a psychosis due to the use of medication due to stomach complaints.
One of his sons had already gone to the police station just before the attack because his father was acting ‘weird and aggressive’. He was sent home with instructions to go to the doctor or to call 112 if things went wrong. And that happened just half an hour later.
Due to the drama, Khalid is now divorced and has lost contact with a son. He explained to the judges that he is now much better. He is working again, has contact with his wife and three of his four children again.
Everyone, including in court, has now realized that the dramatic evening was caused by taking the wrong medicine. The public prosecutor and the man’s lawyer agreed: no punishment is appropriate here. Khalid has been in pretrial detention for more than six months, has been treated, will not do anything like this again anytime soon and is working on restoring family ties. From now on he must stay away from the offending drug.
No penalty
The court decided to rule immediately instead of in two weeks: Khalid will not be sentenced. And the conditions under which he was released from pre-trial detention will be lifted. For example, he is allowed to travel again and there are no more places, such as his old house, where he is no longer allowed to go.
According to the judge, the release of Khalid from his custody last year was still very exciting. But now all doubts are gone as far as the judges are concerned. The judges saw a completely different man on Monday: Khalid is stable again, works, has his own apartment and is rebuilding contact with his family.
The somewhat timid Moroccan was very happy with the court’s verdict. He jumped up, dived to the ground towards the east and thanked Allah profusely for this positive turn in his life.
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2023-07-03 10:40:47
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