A man was indicted and placed in pre-trial detention on Wednesday February 23 for attempted femicide, franceinfo learned from the Nice public prosecutor Xavier Bonhomme. The woman is severely injured in the neck and face, according to her family. The victim’s family posted a photo of her in a hospital bed on Instagram showing two large wounds on the side of her neck and face, as well as blue marks on her neck. “Johanna was stabbed and strangled in her sleep, in front of her children. (…) Johanna underwent several surgeries”explains his family, who asks that “justice be done” and “his attacker pays for his crime”.
According to the family, the victim’s five-year-old son called the fire department, “It was undoubtedly this act that saved the life of Johanna who narrowly escaped death following deep wounds which pierced her cheek, displaced her jaw and approached less than a centimeter from her jugular artery “.
The woman had reported spouse to police over weekend, claiming to have been the victim of a sexual assault on her part, but she had not filed a complaint, according to the Nice prosecutor’s office. His family speaks of an attempted rape. The man was taken into custody and then released on Sunday evening “lack of sufficient evidence at this stage of the proceedings”.
“No protective measures were taken and the tragedy then occurred”protested the president of the National Federation of Victims of Femicide, Sylvaine Grévin, this Wednesday, as reported by France Bleu Azur. The FNVF published an open letter on Wednesday February 23, addressed to the President, the Keeper of the Seals and the Minister of the Interior, in which it considers “unacceptable” that this woman has “did not benefit from the existing measures to protect her, this at the risk of her life and that of her three children”. The FNVF requests the opening of an investigation with the IGPN, the police force, and the general inspection of justice “in order to establish any shortcomings and/or responsibilities which could have led to this tragedy”. She believes that “History repeats itself once again”, after the feminicide of Chahinez Daoud, in May 2021 in Mérignac. She also asks for follow-up of the couple’s children by a unit specializing in psycho-trauma.
The couple was known to the courts for acts of reciprocal domestic violence. The man was offered a criminal composition with a domestic violence prevention course – therefore without going through a trial – for acts of 2020. His wife also accused him of violence in 2021, without going to the end of the procedure. The victim had herself been implicated for domestic violence against this man in 2021 and benefited from an alternative to prosecution, via a domestic violence prevention course.