Wednesday evening, at the call of women's defense collectives, some 300 people, friends, neighbors or activists, gathered for an hour in silence in Mérignac, in the suburbs of Bordeaux.

It is in this suburban neighborhood that Chahinez, 31, mother of three children, died Tuesday evening, after being burned alive by a violent husband, sparking a wave of indignation.

Tuesday around 6:10 p.m., in the middle of the street, Mounir, 44, already imprisoned for domestic violence in 2020, continued his wife.

He fired several shots in her legs until she collapsed, sprayed her with a flammable liquid while she was still alive and set her on fire, according to the prosecution. de Bordeaux and the police.

"Afterwards, he came to burn the house down, he was shooting anywhere"

“We thought it was firecrackers.

Then he came to burn the house down, he was shooting anywhere, ”a neighbor, Anne, told AFP.

The pavilion garage was burnt down, charred personal effects can still be seen inside.

The man was arrested about half an hour later nearby and taken into police custody.

He "was carrying a 12-caliber rifle, a gas pistol and a cartridge belt," according to a statement from the prosecution, which opened an investigation for voluntary homicide by spouse and destruction by fire.

He was forbidden to come into contact with the victim

On June 25, 2020 in Bordeaux, the forty-year-old was sentenced to 18 months in prison including 9 months suspended sentence and arrest warrant at the hearing for "willful violence by spouse" in recidivism, on the same victim, according to the prosecution. He "had obtained from October 5" a specific external placement measure for the perpetrators of domestic violence. Released on December 9, 2020, "he was since followed by the penitentiary service of integration and probation of the Gironde". This measure "included in particular an obligation of care, the prohibition to come into contact with the victim and the prohibition to appear at his home", according to the prosecution.

Chahinez did not have a serious danger telephone (TGD) and her husband had not been assigned an anti-reconciliation bracelet, "not effective" at the time.

“You could tell she was getting beaten up.

But she was very discreet, she told our mothers that it was complicated, ”explains Chahima, 19, who opened a kitty via Instagram (TousavecChahinez)“ so that she could be buried in Algeria with her family ”.

"He only served three months in prison and he continued to circulate in the neighborhood"

“Chahinez said he was a monster.

In June, she had had her larynx crushed.

He only served three months in prison and he continued to move around the neighborhood, ”adds Anne, who remembers seeing the victim with“ two black eyes ”.

On March 15, Chahinez lodged a complaint with the Mérignac police station against her spouse for an assault committed in the morning, according to the prosecution.

But the person, wanted by the police, was "nowhere to be found".

In 2020, 90 feminicides were officially recorded in France, against 146 the previous year.

Society

Gironde: In Mérignac, a dead woman burned alive, her companion arrested

Society

Woman burned alive in Gironde: Her ex-spouse, implicated, had already been convicted of domestic violence

  • Aquitaine

  • Bordeaux

  • Police

  • Feminicide

  • Murder

  • Investigation

  • Society