Iman, a young woman with black eyes and wearing a hijab (Muslim garment that exposes only the face), has been in France for three months. On June 13, she appeared shyly before the criminal court in Digne-les-Bains. With the help of an interpreter, she explained that she had just married religiously to 26-year-old Louai Alali, who is in the country illegally and is a member of a Syrian family that has been settled in Manosque (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) for five years.
Ten days earlier, she had appeared at the police station to complain about the violence of her cohabitant, who allegedly beat her every day with sticks and belts, and she showed investigators numerous hematomas on her thighs and arms.
According to the young woman, Louai is a jealous, drug-addicted and often violent man who forces her to have sexual intercourse. Since Iman is also abused by her mother-in-law, she wants to press charges and move in with her sister, who lives near Toulouse.
At the trial, the defendant admits to slapping her once because, in his opinion, she had insulted her stepfather. She made a mistake that made me angry,” the young man explains according to the interpreter’s translation. A woman must accept her husband’s violence if she wants to maintain domestic partnership.”
“In France, it is forbidden to beat your wife or anyone else,” reminds the judge, asking about the legal conditions of this marriage and the behavior of the defendant, who was in possession of the phone, credit card and identity documents of his partner.
The young Syrian woman, who had obviously been under duress, now wanted to withdraw her complaint and refused to cooperate with the doctors who were supposed to examine her. “I love my husband and want him to be released from prison. He only hit me once, the interpreter translated my words wrong,” says the victim, who is clearly overwhelmed by the turn this hearing is taking. “The violence has become clear and the punishment must be drastic to protect the victim,” says the prosecutor Rémy Avon, who asks for 12 months of imprisonment, including 8 months on simple probation and the maintenance of detention.
Defense attorney Huilen Grotti, who has only been on the case for a few hours, tries in vain to claim a procedural error committed after her client was in police custody. She pleads a unique gesture of anger recognized by a defendant who was himself a “victim of a great cultural divide between Syria and France” and the ” example of a violent father and a submissive mother.” The defendant takes the floor: “I don’t want to live with my wife anymore, she brings me too many problems”. He is sentenced to 12 months of imprisonment, 7 months of which are suspended, obligation to undergo therapy, prohibition of contact with his victim and maintenance of imprisonment.