Martyr of little Hyana: her mother and stepfather sentenced to 15 and 30 years in prison

After a week of trial, the Assize Court of Cher sentenced Hamza Boussalmi on Monday evening to a thirty-year prison sentence, accompanied by twenty years of security, for his beatings and ill-treatment leading to the death of little Hyana, 6 years old, in January 2018.

The mother of the little girl, Noémie Poman, was sentenced to fifteen years in prison, with a ten-year security sentence, for her culpable complicity.

After four hours of deliberation, the jurors rendered a conviction in accordance with the requisitions of the Advocate General.

Boussalmi and Poman showed no reaction.

Lesions, fractures, bites ...

At the hearing, the medical examiner had testified to the ordeal endured by little Hyana, evaluating the child's suffering at seven, on a scale of seven.

The small victim suffered from 32 injuries, including 14 bites, a burn and fractures to the wrists, forearms, hands and fingers, when she died three years ago at the hospital in Tours (Indre-et -Loire).

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.

Hyana died two weeks later, at Tours hospital where she had been transferred.

Already, Noémie Poman had withdrawn her daughter from school "so that the violence is not noted", had accused the general counsel on Monday morning during his requisitions.

The magistrate had 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".

Hamza Boussalmi's mother also condemned

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

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

[…] But one is not an accomplice without active participation ”, she argued.

The jurors did not accept the explanations of the lawyer, nor the late request for forgiveness from the mother.

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.

"

Hamza Boussalmi's mother, Farida Bensiserara (58), was sentenced to five years in prison, including two years, for failing to assist a person in danger and failing to report ill-treatment inflicted on a minor.

The executioner's sister and brother, Myriam, 33, and Dawoud, 22, received a one-year suspended prison sentence for the first, three years suspended for the second, the youngest of the siblings.

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Unfortunately, these cases at the assizes do not prevent such tragedies from happening again.

The 5-year-old boy who had been in critical condition since January 16, after being found unconscious at his home in Olivet (Loiret), died at Tours hospital last Friday.

Her mother and stepfather have been in pre-trial detention since January 18.

They are suspected of having committed significant and repeated violence against the child.