The court acquitted a woman victim of domestic violence from prison: She put pills in his manja so he could spend a peaceful night with the children

Free press

A victim of domestic violence from eastern Macedonia, who was beaten by her husband, put 20 blood pressure pills in the potato dish she prepared for him for dinner, after which the court in Kočani found her guilty of the crime of "attempted murder" but acquitted her from a prison sentence, at a hearing last month. The prosecutor's office appealed against this decision and requested prison for the 32-year-old woman and mother of two minor children, but the Court of Appeal in Shtip recently rejected such a request.

The woman's lawyer, in the defense, pointed out that the damage will be immeasurable if the higher court respects the appeal of the Public Prosecutor's Office and sentences the woman to an effective prison sentence, because a victim of domestic violence is now presented to the court on the complete opposite side - that she is perpetrator of crimes.

"In the case of the defendant, there is a real delusion that her actions will lead to a permissible outcome, the injured party will calm down and she and her two minor children will be spared another night of physical violence and even drive them out into the winter outside the house", claimed the lawyer of the accused woman.

She stated in the courtroom that she did not intend to kill her ex-husband, on the contrary, in the prepared dish - potato soup, she claimed that she only put six blood pressure pills on him, not to kill him, but "to calm down for a while, to sleep, to leave her alone, and also their children.'

The first-instance court determined that on the critical day in the family house, the accused tried to take the life of her then-spouse, in such a way that after a verbal argument, which ended with a physical attack by the victim on the accused, after he left the house, the accused prepared a plate of dinner for him - a potato dish in which she put 20 tablets of the drug Hydrochlorothiazide, which the man took half a tablet a day, as a regular therapy for high blood pressure, but when the victim returned and started eating, he felt a bitter taste in the food, so he mixed it and saw the tablets that were not completely dissolved. Then he took them out of the dish, which left the work as an attempt. The pharmaceutical expert determined that it was an ineligible attempt to murder, because the medicine that the defendant put in the food could not have deprived the injured person of his life, but only caused side effects from an overdose, which did not leave serious health consequences.

The accused said that very often when the injured party told her that his blood pressure had risen, he knew how to reach for the pills and drink them himself, more in number, which somehow led to his calming down and usually after a short period and falling asleep. The accused was often subjected to arguments and physical confrontations, which is why there was an intervention by the social authorities and the accused was placed for a certain period of time in 2016 in the Center for the Protection of Victims of Domestic Violence. Then she came back and stayed living together with the victim, but on a different floor of the family house. Arguments were frequent and unfounded because her husband thought she did not take enough care of the children and the house. That there were 20 tablets in number was also confirmed by the victim's brother, who personally saw the tablets that were smeared with food and counted them, and which the victim told him were put in his food.

Allegations in the complaint of the Public Prosecutor's Office that the harmful consequences for the victim did not occur, only because he had just started eating and then saw the tablets, the court considered them unfounded.

Dear reader,

Our access to web content is free, because we believe in equality in information, regardless of whether someone can pay or not. Therefore, in order to continue our work, we ask for the support of our community of readers by financially supporting the Free Press. Become a member of Sloboden Pechat to help the facilities that will enable us to deliver long-term and quality information and TOGETHER let's ensure a free and independent voice that will ALWAYS BE ON THE PEOPLE'S SIDE.

SUPPORT A FREE PRESS.
WITH AN INITIAL AMOUNT OF 60 DENARS

Video of the day