Geneva: Ten months in prison for the “violent tyrant”

“Ideal son-in-law on one side, violent tyrant on the other,” the two-faced man was absent when his verdict was read on Tuesday. The 28-year-old Frenchman, who had made his pregnant ex-partner live hell by controlling her life and strangling her on several occasions, was sentenced to 28 months in prison, 10 of which were closed, minus 126 days. So, he only has six months left to spend behind bars. A verdict deemed “adequate” by his lawyer, M^e Piyadigamage.

The cross-border worker is also expelled from Switzerland for five years and will have to pay 8,000 francs in compensation for moral harm to the complainant. He was also sentenced to a 40-day suspended fine of 50 francs and a fine of 1,200 francs.

In a relationship with a Geneva woman between 2018 and 2022, the young man denied the majority of the facts. The court, which found him guilty of endangering the lives of others, coercion, threat, simple bodily harm, insult and assault, noted “the lack of awareness of the accused, who is positioned as a victim and has shown no sign of empathy for the victim.”

According to the judges, the latter’s version is credible and corroborated by messages, medical documents and the testimonies of her friends, unlike the explanations of the accused “which make no sense”.

For almost four years, the complainant lived under the domination of this man. She was forbidden from going to the gym, seeing certain friends, mixing with men, going out without hiding her body under long clothes or even taking training as a caregiver. She also had to make a detailed report of her whereabouts throughout the day or risk being harassed with messages, insulted, threatened, or even beaten.

In 2022, when she becomes pregnant, it’s a tragedy, the Public Prosecutor’s Office recalled on Monday. “The defendant lashes out even more” speaking of her as “his property”. In July 2022, she found the strength to file a complaint. The defendant, who lives in neighboring France and works in Geneva, is then incarcerated for a month and a half, before being released, with the benefit of alternative measures.

Since stable cohabitation during their relationship could not be established, events that occurred before April 2022 or which could not be dated “cannot be pursued and are classified,” specified the president of the court, Judith Levy Owczarczak. This also underlined “the futile and selfish motive of the accused, which stems from poorly controlled anger and a desire to satisfy his need for control”. The parties have ten days to appeal.