Bourg-en-Bresse (AFP) – French prosecutors on Wednesday requested a 15-year jail term for a woman found guilty of killing her bedridden grandfather by setting fire to his mattress, after appealing a previous sentence they deemed too lenient. 

In October 2024, a court handed Emilie G, 33, a five-year suspended sentence after she admitted to killing her grandfather, describing it as “an act of love” to end his suffering.

But prosecutors appealed against the sentence, arguing she killed the 95-year-old as frustrations piled up in her personal life. 

“He did not die peacefully. This was not an act of love,” said prosecutor Eric Mazaud during an appeal hearing at the Ain Assize Court in the eastern town of Bourg-en-Bresse.

“When you love someone, you don’t burn them,” he said.

The victim was found dead from severe burns and smoke inhalation in his bed in August 2020.

His granddaughter expressed regret during the appeal hearings which opened on Monday, but was unable to explain why she chose to burn him alive.

“He did not have a death worthy of his life… fire is atrocious, it is inhuman,” she said on Tuesday.

Prosecutors requested a 15-year prison term on appeal – the same sentence sought in the first trial.

-- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin