It is just one more episode of sexist violence for which Belahouel A. has been sentenced in Valencia to four and a half years in prison for threats, habitual abuse, animal abuse and against moral integrity, according to Las Provincias.
It occurred between December 27 and 29, 2021, in a home in the Valencian town of Montserrat. The accused has admitted that he became angry with his partner who accidentally spit on him when blowing on the hair clipper. Your reaction? He tied her up and held a knife to her neck while telling her that at night "there was going to be blood", that he would throw her alive in the fireplace because "she deserved to die" for having spit on him, and that after burning her alive he would throw her teeth in a field so that she would not be identified.
As if that were not enough, he forced her to hold her pet, a white rabbit, by the legs, and slit the animal's throat with a knife, forcing her partner to witness it while saying: "This is how you learn, this is your lesson." The woman fled, taking refuge in the bathroom and locking the door. The condemned man broke the door and dragged his partner to the dining room again, forcing him to see the rabbit's body and pouring blood all over his face. Hours later, the defendant cooked the animal and tried to get his girlfriend to eat it.
The continued mistreatment to which he subjected his victim dates back to October 2021. Furthermore, on a trip to La Rioja, when the couple was in a hostel, an argument occurred because the aggressor did not agree with the clothes his girlfriend wanted to wear. Thus, he hit him on the head, arms, legs and face with a club.
According to the sentence, on another occasion, at the end of November of that same year, while both were at Montserrat's home, the convicted man tied his partner by the arms and legs, placed her face down and frightened her by telling her that he was going to cut her throat and that he would throw her into the fireplace. Three weeks later, he also tortured her by tying her hands and feet for an hour, and forcing her to kneel on rice that he had previously spread on the ground. All of them while he hit her with a club, and punched her in the eyes.
Later, in January 2022, after a new argument, this time because he said that his girlfriend talked too much, the accused punched her in the nose, causing bleeding that could not be assessed by any doctor. Since, like on previous occasions, the victim suffered the abuse in silence.
Until January 16, 2022, the woman decided to leave the home. When he saw that she was collecting her things, the abuser grabbed her by the hair and punched her in the left eye. The next day a Civil Guard patrol showed up at the home, and after being evaluated by a forensic doctor, the woman finally filed the complaint that saved her life.
For all these reasons, the Criminal Court number three of Valencia has sentenced the accused to four and a half years in prison and 240 days of work for the benefit of the community for four crimes of workplace abuse due to sexist violence, injuries, continuous threats, habitual abuse, animal abuse and a crime against moral integrity, with the aggravating circumstances of kinship and for gender reasons. The aggressor initially faced a twelve-year sentence, reduced because the subject suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, and the mitigating factor of mental alteration is considered.
Likewise, he is also prohibited from communicating with and approaching less than a thousand meters from his victim for a period of 24 years. And he must compensate her with 3,420 euros for the injuries and moral damages caused after this continued mistreatment.
