Husband stabbed his wife and 8 years old daughter in Shamkir.
Elmaddin Hasanov 34, stabbed his wife, Lala Hasanova 27, and daughter Gumru Hasanova 8, in Shamkir, Azerbaijan on February 13, 2022.
Mother and daughter both died before the police and ambulance arrived at the crime spot.
Perpetrator who escaped the crime scene was later detained by the police.
The woman was 2 months pregnant when she was murdered. After the long years of treatment finally she was hoping to become a mother of two.
Gumru Hamid Hasanova, 85, perpetrator's grandmother has escaped the violent attack. When she saw a knife in her grandson's hand, instead of entering the room, she ran out of the house and called neighbors for help.
Elmaddin Hasanov was employed as a laborer in various places in the village, while Lala Hasanova was a housewife. The women’s parents are engaged in agriculture, and the man’s father is a taxi driver in the village. Earlier, their relatives and neighbors said that there were no conflicts between the families.
However, according to Elchin Abbasov, a local representative of Chinarli settlement, Hasanov has been suffering from a mental illness for a long time. Neighbors say he was visiting a doctor in Ganja.
Tofig Hasanov, the perpetrator's uncle, said his nephew suffered from severe headaches, and was planning to see a doctor the day after he committed a crime. : "He had to go to the doctor tomorrow, it happened today."
According to the neighbors, Elmaddin Hasanov looked like a normal person and he was a worker in a bazaar.
According to the Shamkir District Prosecutor's Office official letter, an inpatient forensic psychiatric examiner was appointed to investigate Hasanov Elmaddin's mental condition, as a result, Hasanov was placed in the inpatient forensic psychiatric examination department of the Forensic Psychiatric Examination Center of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
The certificate issued at the Shamkir district polyclinic and presented to the Shamkir District Prosecutor's Office, reads Hasanov was not registered in the psychiatric and narcological department of the Shamkir district polyclinic before the homicide.
The Shamkir District Prosecutor's office confirms that the investigation of the case is still ongoing.
Psychologist Azad Isazadeh explains regulations related to crime committed by people with mental illness: the court raises two questions after passing the Forensic Medical Psychiatric Examination: 1) Is this person mentally ill ? 2) Was the perpetrator aware of what he was doing at the crime scene?
“ If the later is confirmed, then the perpetrator is directed to the mental hospital unit. After the treatment, he will not be punished by the court. In case if the perpetrator doesn't understand what he has done, he would anyways directed to the mental hospital for a treatment, but after that treatment he could be punished. The duration of treatment can last from five to ten years. It can be commented only after the decision of the medical examiner.”
Isazadeh evaluates this practice as controversial: "According to the mental health Law of the Azerbaijan Republic a person cannot be involuntarily hospitalized. However, there are exceptions when it comes to suicide and homicide. In this case, an application is made to the court, which directs a person to undergo a psychiatric examination and within 24 decides whether the person should be subjected to compulsory treatment at the hospital or could be treated at home."
Isazade says in Soviet times, hospitalization of people with mental illness was involuntary. According to the current more liberalized legislation mental health treatment and hospitalization is voluntary. Isazade says it is hard to diagnose a person with a mental problem, “mental illness manifests slowly, at the time when relatives find out the problem it is too late and as a result tragedies occur,” Isazade says.
Advocate Fariz Namazli notes that if a person is in a state of insanity at the time of committing a crime or does not understand the meaning of mental illness and actions after committing a crime, then compulsory measures of a medical nature may be taken against him:
“If he is insane or mentally ill, he should be treated. The trial will continue and Criminal proceedings may be instituted under Articles 120.2.4, 120.2.7, 120.2.8 and 120.2.9 of the Criminal Code.”
According to the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs, 73 women were killed in 2021 because of domestic violence.The number of domestic violence crimes registered in 2021 is 19% higher than in 2020.
One of the most relevant risk factors for femicide are mental health problems and pregnancy.
The study about the “Femicide, its Causes and Recent Trends authored by Consuelo Corradi, a Professor at Universitá di Roma LUMSA, Italy, lists mental health and pregnancy as important risk factors for femicide on an individual level.
Other important individual risk factors for the perpetrator are abuse of alcohol and drugs, violating a protection order issued after being convicted for domestic violence, and unemployment status. As for the victim, the highest risk factor for being killed would be attempted strangulation and pregnancy. Other risk factors and warning signs are being a victim of rape (and thus being targeted as ‘dishonoured’), and having low educational level, which increases the victim’s social vulnerability.
According to the same report, witnessing domestic abuse in the family of origin is a risk factor for both -perpetrator and victim.
The research (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341654319_Prevention_of_femicide) authored by Anna Costanza Baldry and Maria Jose Magalhaes, lists main fields for the prevention of femicide including:
The acknowledgement of the gendered nature of this hate crime and the development of more efficient and effective fatality reviews and risk assessments.
Ulviyya Shahin
