Geneva Court of Appeal: 51-year-old woman sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for husband's murder
A 51-year-old woman was convicted of murdering her husband in Vernier. The Geneva Court of Appeal reduced the sentence from 15 to 12 years.
Twelve years imprisonment after shot in the back at the Rhone riverbank
The Geneva Court of Appeal confirmed the murder conviction against a 51-year-old woman on Tuesday, but reduced the prison sentence from 15 to 12 years. This is reported by watson.ch. The woman shot her husband in the back in December 2021 in Vernier (GE) and left him severely injured on the bank of the Rhone.
"You have committed an abhorrent act for entirely trivial reasons," the presiding judge declared when announcing the verdict. The court highlighted the coldness and determination of the defendant: she had fired deliberately and left her husband alone at night despite knowing that he was fatally wounded.
The victim, a man originally from Mauritius, was 15 years younger than his wife. After being shot, he was able to alert rescue services himself, but died approximately an hour later. The court established that he could have been saved had assistance been provided immediately.
The woman had deliberately taken care to leave no location data from her mobile phone. After the act, she showered and told police that she did not know her husband's whereabouts.
The couple had met on the internet and married in 2019. The marriage was characterised by fierce conflicts. The first instance found that the woman largely controlled her husband's life. The motives were assessed as jealousy, possessiveness and fear of separation.
The Geneva Criminal Court had sentenced her to 15 years imprisonment in November 2025. It found her statements to be hardly credible and accused her of destroying evidence and constructing contradictory versions of the course of events.
The Court of Appeal justified the sentence reduction in part by the absence of prior convictions and a diagnosed combined paranoid and borderline personality disorder. The first instance had already derived a slightly diminished culpability from this.
The defence had argued for intentional killing and a maximum sentence of ten years. They contended that the psychological disorders had significantly impaired the defendant's perception; furthermore, a dissociative amnesia was possible.
The judges confirmed the outpatient therapeutic measure and pointed to the significant deterioration of the woman's mental state since the start of proceedings, as well as her lack of empathy towards the victim and his relatives. The compensation of 40,000 francs for the victim's mother — who had sought 70,000 francs — was also confirmed.
Source: Google News CH — Crime (de)