Moroccan woman sentenced to life after killing her newborn

The Spanish Supreme Court has sentenced a Moroccan woman to life in prison for suffocating her newborn baby shortly after birth.

As Yabiladi reported on August 1st, the incident occurred in 2020. The young Moroccan woman gave birth to the newborn on a farm she was living on, the baby was alive when conceived but was killed on the same day by the mother. The jury concluded the woman applied pressure to the baby’s neck with the intention to kill, taking advantage of the baby’s complete inability to defend herself.

The forensic report ruled out an accident as the reason for the baby’s passing, establishing mechanical asphyxiation as the cause of death.

The shocking and horrific nature of this story continues, as it was reported the placenta was discovered in a bag a day after. The woman attempted to dispose of it in an agricultural water tank used for waste. DNA testing connected the woman to the contents of the bag and the tools used to get rid of the evidence.

The initial verdict was handed down by the provincial court in Almeria in December 2023, this was later upheld by the High Court of Justice of Andalusia in June 2024. The Supreme Court confirmed the conviction, deeming the evidence sufficient and credible.
The Supreme Court sustained the conviction for premeditated murder because of the nature of the crime. The court concluded the perpetrator had exploited the victim’s extreme vulnerability as a newborn.

Crimes involving Moroccans abroad are usually bound to drug routes or human trafficking and migrant smuggling. But this case belongs to a far darker realm, one not of smuggling networks or syndicates, but of isolation, silence, and a deeply intimate tragedy.

Yabiladi, Maghrebi.org