https://www.lefigaro.fr/faits-diver...usion-requis-contre-son-ex-compagnon-20220204
A 34-year-old Sudanese man was convicted of stabbing his former girlfriend with twenty stab wounds in September 2019.
On Friday, February 4, the Assize Court of Seine-Saint-Denis sentenced the ex-companion of a 27-year-old medical student to 20 years of criminal imprisonment for having killed her with twenty stab wounds in Saint-Ouen in 2019.
After three hours of deliberation, the court found Rifat Abbas, a Sudanese who is now 34 years old, guilty of the murder of Audrey Coignard in September 2019, with the aggravating circumstance of having been her partner. The Advocate General had requested 30 years in prison on Friday morning. “Mr. Abbas did not kill her because he loved her. He killed her because he was losing his job,” said the magistrate, Bertrand Macle.
“A woman who trusted in people”
The intern of the Jean-Verdier hospital in Bondy from Normandy was very invested in helping migrants; it was through this that she met the accused. The couple had maintained a relationship which she had put an end to a few months before the tragedy. She continued to host her ex-companion, in an irregular situation, but had asked him to return the keys to her on the evening of his death. “The help she gave (to migrants) turned into friendship and we respected her for that”, testified one of the migrants to whom she had come to help and now close to the family.
“She brought good to others, so she did not see why we would hurt her,” the mother of the victim reported Wednesday at the bar, a civil party alongside other family members. Throughout the trial, portraits of Audrey Coignard faced the court. The father, a former farmer, was “very proud” of his daughter. He praised her “physical and mental strength” and her “passionate” character. She was “a woman who trusted in people and did not want to let herself give in to the fear of the unknown,” summed up her older sister and confidante, pregnant at the time of the facts, who confides to having “been incapable” since the death of her sister to return to her work.
“Strong, sensitive, gentle, protective”
“Strong, sensitive, gentle, protective,” “with an incredible sense of friendship” and “fully fulfilled” in her work: this is the portrait drawn at the bar by a close friend of the victim who saw her two days before her death. Reconstructing the last moments of the young female medical student and understanding what prompted the accused to take action were at the heart of the trial. Rifat Abbas, with an “immature” personality according to the various parties, maintained a contrite attitude during the four days of hearing.
“That she was an angel does not make him the devil,” defended his lawyer Me Chloé Arnoux. In her argument, she called on the court to judge her client on the basis of his “miserable” life and the trauma suffered during his chaotic migratory journey through Libya, where he was tortured. Claiming to have few memories of the facts, Rifat Abbas had admitted during his interrogation Thursday having “stabbed” the victim, “to silence her.” “I was afraid the neighbors would hear and the police would come,” he said.
He did not give any additional explanation for his murderous gesture, apologizing several times to the family. The trial has “freed” the family “from a weight,” said the emotional father of Audrey Coignard: even if “it may not be enough, we are moving forward.”
A 34-year-old Sudanese man was convicted of stabbing his former girlfriend with twenty stab wounds in September 2019.
On Friday, February 4, the Assize Court of Seine-Saint-Denis sentenced the ex-companion of a 27-year-old medical student to 20 years of criminal imprisonment for having killed her with twenty stab wounds in Saint-Ouen in 2019.
After three hours of deliberation, the court found Rifat Abbas, a Sudanese who is now 34 years old, guilty of the murder of Audrey Coignard in September 2019, with the aggravating circumstance of having been her partner. The Advocate General had requested 30 years in prison on Friday morning. “Mr. Abbas did not kill her because he loved her. He killed her because he was losing his job,” said the magistrate, Bertrand Macle.
“A woman who trusted in people”
The intern of the Jean-Verdier hospital in Bondy from Normandy was very invested in helping migrants; it was through this that she met the accused. The couple had maintained a relationship which she had put an end to a few months before the tragedy. She continued to host her ex-companion, in an irregular situation, but had asked him to return the keys to her on the evening of his death. “The help she gave (to migrants) turned into friendship and we respected her for that”, testified one of the migrants to whom she had come to help and now close to the family.
“She brought good to others, so she did not see why we would hurt her,” the mother of the victim reported Wednesday at the bar, a civil party alongside other family members. Throughout the trial, portraits of Audrey Coignard faced the court. The father, a former farmer, was “very proud” of his daughter. He praised her “physical and mental strength” and her “passionate” character. She was “a woman who trusted in people and did not want to let herself give in to the fear of the unknown,” summed up her older sister and confidante, pregnant at the time of the facts, who confides to having “been incapable” since the death of her sister to return to her work.
“Strong, sensitive, gentle, protective”
“Strong, sensitive, gentle, protective,” “with an incredible sense of friendship” and “fully fulfilled” in her work: this is the portrait drawn at the bar by a close friend of the victim who saw her two days before her death. Reconstructing the last moments of the young female medical student and understanding what prompted the accused to take action were at the heart of the trial. Rifat Abbas, with an “immature” personality according to the various parties, maintained a contrite attitude during the four days of hearing.
“That she was an angel does not make him the devil,” defended his lawyer Me Chloé Arnoux. In her argument, she called on the court to judge her client on the basis of his “miserable” life and the trauma suffered during his chaotic migratory journey through Libya, where he was tortured. Claiming to have few memories of the facts, Rifat Abbas had admitted during his interrogation Thursday having “stabbed” the victim, “to silence her.” “I was afraid the neighbors would hear and the police would come,” he said.
He did not give any additional explanation for his murderous gesture, apologizing several times to the family. The trial has “freed” the family “from a weight,” said the emotional father of Audrey Coignard: even if “it may not be enough, we are moving forward.”
