French court urged to free woman who killed husband

CHALON-SUR-SAA NE, France: French prosecutors on Friday urged judges to spare any more jail time for a woman charged with murdering the man who raped her for years before becoming her husband and pimp, a case that has sparked outrage in France.

Ahead of sentencing later on Friday, prosecutors told the court Valerie Bacot, who was just 12 when the boyfriend of her mother, Daniel Polette, raped her for the first time, should not go back to prison.

The case of Bacot, who wrote a book about her experiences published last month called "Everybody Knew", has become a rallying cause for feminists in France at a time when more women are breaking their silence on sexual assault.

"Valerie Bacot should not have taken the life of the person who was terrorising her," state prosecutor Eric Jallet told the court in eastern France. But judges should "uphold the transgression without incarcerating her again", he said, asking for a five-year sentence with four years suspended.

That would lead to Bacot’s release, since she has already spent a year behind bars since confessing to shooting Polette and hiding the body in a forest with the help of two of her four children.

A visibly fatigued Bacot, 40, burst into tears and collapsed upon hearing the prosecutor’s request, prompting an intervention of emergency personnel and a brief suspension of the hearing.