A French court sentenced a man to life imprisonment today in absentia 70 year old man who in 2019 murdered his second wife, just a few years after killing his first.

Because he thought his wife was unfaithful and mainly because he was “afraid she would leave him”, Jilali Bensherif, who has fled to Algeria, as witnesses testified, planned her murder 15 days before committing this heinous act . The unfortunate woman was murdered in her sleep sometime between September 13-16, 2019, when Bensherif stabbed her inside their home in Creutzwald, eastern France, and then fled to Algeria.

An international arrest warrant was issued against him.

At his trial, at Moselle Court of Appealprosecutor Sophie Marten said those who knew him described him as a “jealous”, “possessive” and “violent” man, with a “highly disturbing” character.

In March 2017, Bensherif was sentenced by an Algerian court to seven years in prison for murdering his first wife, under similar circumstances, a few years earlier. But then he was found guilty only of causing injuries that led to the victim’s death as the court ruled that he did not intend to kill her.

In the meantime, two years earlier, in 2015, Benserif had married the 53-year-old mathematics teacher Safia Henous, with whom he left for France. In this country, the woman lived until her death “a four-year torture”, as the prosecutor said.

According to the testimonies of neighbors and friends of the couple, her husband beat her and raped her every day to punish her. Three times in 2019, police went to the couple’s home to investigate allegations of domestic violence, but Safia never filed a lawsuit against him. For a year a shelter for abused women also tried to convince her to leave home. But she, who had no papers and was living illegally in France, was afraid to leave her husband. She was due to receive the coveted residency permit on September 19 but it was those papers that sealed her death sentence, according to the prosecution.

Benserif reportedly returned to Algeria, along with his 15-year-old son from his first marriage.

The number of femicides in France remained almost constant in 2022 compared to the previous year, with 118 murders of women by their partner or ex-partner, according to figures released on Saturday by the interior ministry.