French court sentences man to life for burning wife alive, case draws criticism of police
Fearful for her life, his victim had made a report against him but investigators found the handling of her complaint severely lacking

“It’s an extremely severe sentence in that he has almost no chance of one day leaving detention,” Anais Divot, one of his lawyers, said.
A lawyer for the victim’s family, Julien Plouton, said that “the sentence takes into account the seriousness of the facts and the personality of the accused”.
In 2021, the French-Algerian man stalked his Algerian-born wife Chahinez Daoud following their separation, using a van that he parked outside her house near Bordeaux in southwestern France to watch her.

On May 4 of that year, Boutaa shot the mother of three in both legs with a rifle, poured petrol on her and set her on fire.