A man who ripped out his wife's eyes in a fit of rage was sentenced by a French court to 30 years behind bars recently.
Mohamed Hadfi, 31, tore out his 23-year-old wife Samira Bari's eyes following a heated argument in their apartment in the southern French city of Nimes in July 2003 after she refused to have sex with him. Bari, who had demanded a divorce before the attack, was permanently blinded.
Hadfi, a Moroccan, initially fled to Germany. He was finally arrested and sent back to France, where he was indicted for "acts of torture and barbarity leading to a permanent disability". Prosecutor Dominique Tourette demanded that Hadfi be sentenced to 30 years in prison, two thirds of which must be served in full, calling the defendant a "diabolic torturer". Once his sentence is served, Hadfi will be deported and barred from ever returning to France.
Hadfi's lawyer, Jean-Pierre Cabanes, insisted there were extenuating circumstances. "This is the result of a marriage that was arranged, not chosen," he said, pointing to the gulf separating his client, who came from southern Morocco, and his young wife, who had grown up in France. Cabanes begged the jury for leniency, claiming his client's action "appeared to stem from a mental illness."
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