In Nicosia, a court sentenced a 43-year-old woman who tried to strangle her mother-in-law to eight years in prison.

The 72-year-old mother-in-law lived in her house in Nicosia, and her son and daughter-in-law occupied a separate house in her yard. The spouses lived together for about three years, after which they broke off the relationship, the daughter-in-law moved out and settled next door.

In September 2019, a woman came uninvited to her former mother-in-law’s house and asked for a smoke. She sent her to the living room for cigarettes. After a while, without waiting for her return, the old woman also went into the living room and saw that the guest was crying. Sitting next to her, the ex-betrother-in-law began to ask her what had happened, but then the former daughter-in-law grabbed her by the throat and, pressing her to the sofa, began to choke her.

When the victim lost consciousness, the guest wanted to hide, but met her ex-husband. He saw blood on her hands, ran into the living room and found his mother lying on the floor with a pillow on her face and a bleeding wound on the back of her head. However, she was still alive.

The intruder was detained. The doctors examined the victim and diagnosed subdural hematoma and subarachnoid hemorrhage in the brain. The woman underwent surgery, spent almost three months in hospital, and then underwent rehabilitation until the end of March.

The court considered the defendant – native of Russia, who arrived to Cyprus in 2008 together with his then British wife – sane and able to answer for her actions, despite her experience in psychiatric hospital: the woman had no serious psychopathologies, only alcohol and psychotic disorders. According to the sentence, she will spend eight years in prison for attempted murder.