Death of little Hyana: the mother sentenced to fifteen years, the companion to thirty years

The Cher Assize Court sentenced Hamza Boussalmi on Monday evening, January 25, to a thirty-year prison sentence, with twenty years of security, for his beatings and ill-treatment leading to the death of little Hyana in January 2018. The mother of the little girl, Noémie Poman, was sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment, along with a ten-year security sentence, for complicity in torture or acts of barbarism resulting in death without intention of giving it.

Read also: New alarm call on child protection

The two main defendants did not show any reaction to the announcement of their sentences, in line with the requisitions of the general counsel, Marie-Pierre Viret, after a little more than four hours of deliberation.

Using the expert's words, the magistrate had described the

“psychopathic personality”

of the violent companion.

She spoke of an individual

"outside the norm and problematic from a societal point of view"

.

Terms used by the president when the verdict was announced, as was the reminder of the testimony of the forensic pathologist.

The latter had assessed the child's suffering at seven, on a scale of seven.

The small victim suffered from 32 injuries, including fourteen bites, a burn and fractures to the wrists, forearms, hands and fingers.

A "monster of selfishness"

The jurors, who insisted on the seriousness of the facts, were therefore not convinced by the pleadings of the lawyer of the main accused, Me Georges Parastatis.

Attempting to describe the climate of violence in which Hamza Boussalmi grew up, the lawyer recalled that the young man had lived in prison most of his adult life and did not know how to

"solve problems in another way. Than

by violence.

On December 30, 2017, the girl was dropped off in a coma at Bourges hospital, by her mother, under a false name.

The latter had then fled with her companion.

The child,

"who presented multiple bruises, as well as bite marks, burns and a compressive subdural hematoma"

, in the words of the public prosecutor of Bourges in 2018, will die a fortnight later, after being transferred to Tours hospital.

She was six years old.

Read also: Hyana, 6, a child martyr tortured to death by her parents

For the Advocate General, the mother's complicity was hardly in doubt.

"She is an accomplice when she decides to no longer educate her daughter so that the violence is not noticed,"

she said.

The magistrate portrayed a

“monster of selfishness”

who did everything to protect his companion, in particular by defeating the placement order issued to protect Hyana a few months before the tragedy.

“Hyana faced two adults: one who tortures her, one who keeps her available to her torturer,”

she summed up.

"She preferred Hamza to her children."

Without denying the responsibility of his client, Me Delphine Debord-Guy, refused the qualification of complicity, both legal and moral.

“It is out of the question to plead an outright acquittal.

(...) But one is not an accomplice without active participation ”

, annoyed the advice of the young mother, aged 22 at the time of the facts.

The jurors did not accept the explanations of the lawyer, or even the request for forgiveness from Noémie Poman.

Speaking to the court, before the jurors retired to deliberate, she said calmly:

“I would just like to say that I beg my daughter's forgiveness for my inaction.

I will also have to ask forgiveness from Y. and S.

(his two other children, Editor's note)

for Hyana's death. ”