French justice does not forget it. Djilali Bencherif, on the run in Algeria, was sentenced Monday by the Moselle Assize Court to life imprisonment for having murdered his wife in September 2019 in Creutzwald (Moselle), a few years after having already killed his first wife. .
Pretexting an “imaginary infidelity” and especially by “fear of being left”, he had, according to several testimonies, orchestrated the murder of his wife fifteen days before the facts. He killed her between September 13 and 16, 2019 with a knife while she slept at their home before fleeing to Algeria. An international arrest warrant has been issued against him.
Already sentenced in Algeria
Described as “jealous”, “possessive” and “violent” by those close to him and as “an extremely worrying personality” according to Advocate General Sophie Martin, Djilali Bencherif, 70, had already been sentenced in March 2017 by the Criminal Court of Mostaganem, Algeria, for killing his first wife in conditions similar to 7 years imprisonment for assault and battery resulting in death without intent.
Mathematics teacher in Algeria, Chafia Khennous, 53, married Djilali Bencherif in 2015, before following him to France where she lived until his death “four years of marital ordeal”, according to the expression of the lawyer general. She had requested life imprisonment. According to testimonies collected from neighbors or friends, Chafia Khennous Bencherif was “regularly beaten” and “raped daily” by her husband “to smear her”.
Three interventions of the gendarmes
Three times in 2019, the gendarmes had dealt with the Bencherif couple for acts of domestic violence, without ever obtaining a complaint from the victim.
For a year, the Espoir de Forbach home had been trying to extract her from her home, but undocumented Chafia Khennous was afraid to leave her husband. She was to receive a residence permit on September 19, “long-awaited papers which signed her death warrant”, according to the public prosecutor.
The number of women killed by their spouse or ex-spouse in France in 2022 is almost stable compared to the previous year with 118 feminicides recorded, four less than in 2021, according to a report published on Saturday by the Ministry of Interior.