Estranged Egyptian wife tosses baby into canal

Cairo: An Egyptian woman has been sentenced to life imprisonment after a court convicted her on charges of premediated murder for throwing her baby into a canal due to a dispute with her husband, according to local media.

Last October, the woman, aged 40, threw the baby boy into a village canal in the southern governorate of Beni Sueif. The baby’s body was later recovered.

Initially, the woman claimed that two unknown persons had broken into her house and kidnapped the baby.

However, police investigations and neighbours’ testimonies proved she made up the story to cover up her crime.

Her husband, aged 61, told the court that the woman had previously attempted to abort the bay herself when she was pregnant and that she told him she had killed their baby in order to make him “feel devastated” for failing to provide her with an independent, well-furnished house.

Footage retrieved from surveillance on the day of the incident showed the woman had left her house with the baby before throwing him into the canal.

The ruling, issued by the Beni Sueif Criminal Court, can be appealed.