The Montreal man who allegedly stabbed his pregnant wife twenty times was formally charged with murder in a very brief hearing on Monday.
• Also read: Femicide in Montreal: Her husband is said to have stabbed her twenty times
Mustapha Khalil Mechken, 42, appeared at the Montreal courthouse on a charge of second-degree murder, suggesting he did not premeditally commit the crime he is accused of.
He has been detained since his arrest last Friday and attended via video conference. However, the case was postponed until March while the defense collected and analyzed the evidence.
“It will be ready in the afternoon,” Anne-Andrée Charette of the Crown assured the court in front of several relatives of the defendants present in the room.
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The latter, who was accompanied by a representative of the Tunisian consulate, declined to comment on the matter.
Meanwhile, Mechken, who risks a life sentence, remains in custody until further notice in connection with the death of his wife Narjess Ben Yedder, which occurred last Friday in Montreal.
On the morning of the tragedy, Ms Ben Yedder, 32, was found stabbed to death in her home in the Pointe-aux-Trembles district. According to Le Journal, it was the defendant who called 911 to confess to the crime against his wife, who was about eight weeks pregnant at the time.
The victim, originally from Tunisia, had lived in Quebec for several years and worked for a software development company in Montreal.
She had been married to Mechken for about three years. The latter had no previous convictions and was in no way known to the police.
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