Higher court sends mother to “small custody” – TOP ONLINE
The higher court found the Cameroonian guilty of bodily harm, but in a non-culpable condition. You suffer from paranoid schizophrenia and are therefore admitted to an inpatient measure under Article 59 of the Criminal Code, also known colloquially as “small custody”.
Her mental disorder should be treated there. Should she one day be released again, the woman will be expelled from the country for five years, with the expulsion from the country being written out in the Schengen information system. This means that she is not allowed to enter any other Schengen country during this time.
«Unpredictable in the madness»
Usually, people who are not at fault are not given references to the country. In this case, however, the higher court ruled differently. The judge said that the public interest in being evicted from Switzerland predominated. The case shows how unpredictable women can act under their delusions. “In the worst case, they can be fatal.”
The prosecutor actually called for a tougher guilty verdict: He applied for a conviction for intentional or negligent homicide. The woman repeatedly abused and chastised her son. In doing so, she accepted that she would kill him.
However, the higher court was of the opinion that the woman could not have foreseen what the consequences of her actions could be. The bottom line was that the public prosecutor and the higher court agreed: the woman is a danger to the public.
Beaten with belt or cable
It was drawn up for the higher court that in January 2019 the woman mistreated her then four-year-old son so severely that he died as a result of his injuries. The boy was beaten with a belt or an electric cable, among other things.
In addition, his mother puts so-called “nettles” on his arms and thighs. As a result of the twisting of the skin, he suffered severe bleeding and bruises on his arms and legs. The injuries caused a droplet of fat to loosen in the bloodstream, causing a pulmonary embolism with acute heart failure.
The Cameroonian let herself be exempted from the process and let her lawyer talk. In his plea, he called for an acquittal because there were “reasonable doubts” that the mother was really responsible for the injuries. It could also have been a fall down stairs, he said.
Alcohol against paranoia
The woman has suffered from mental health problems for years. Against her paranoia and to calm the voices in her head, she drank large amounts of alcohol in the past. Since the woman has been in prison, she has had to be admitted to psychiatric hospital three times, each time the birthday of her deceased son was approaching.
The judgment of the higher court is not yet final. It can still be referred to the Federal Supreme Court.