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Court rejects conditional release of Jacqueline Sauvage

A court in France on Friday rejected the conditional release of Jacqueline Sauvage who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for murdering her husband but was later partially pardoned by French President François Hollande. 

This file picture shows the court house in Melun. Jacqueline Sauvage's conditional release was rejected by a tribunal in Melun on Friday.
This file picture shows the court house in Melun. Jacqueline Sauvage's conditional release was rejected by a tribunal in Melun on Friday. Thomas Samson/AFP
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The ruling comes after a committee of experts advised against her release following her psychological and medical assessment.

The 68-year-old was convicted of killing her husband after 47 years of marital hell and given a ten-year jail term in October 2014.

At the hearing, her three daughters had testified against their father, who died in 2012 at the age of 65. According to the testimony, the daughters were raped and beaten, as was their mother.

Their brother, who too was a victim of his father’s violence, committed suicide the day before their mother killed her husband.

Prosecutors in the town of Melun, which is located in south east of Paris, took a favorable position for the release of Jacqueline whose conviction was upheld by a higher court on appeal.

The conviction sparked a wave of support for her release resulting in a demand for presidential pardon by her daughters who received backing from many parliamentarians and personalities.

A support committee was formed that included Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, ecologist Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, co-founder of the Left Party.

A petition ‘Free Jacqueline!’ had collected 400,000 signatories throughout France.

The daughters wrote a letter to President Hollande saying their mother had suffered throughout her marriage and was a victim of their father who was violent, tyrannical, perverse and incestuous.

On December 31, Hollande granted a presidential pardon to Jacqueline Sauvage, as is the prerogative of French Presidents.

“Faced with an exceptional human situation, the president wanted to make possible the return of Jacqueline Sauvage with his family as soon as possible” but by maintaining the “respect for the judiciary,” the President’s office had declared at the time.
 

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