A mother of two who stabbed her husband with a kitchen knife after he had subjected her and her children to a regime of domestic violence was yesterday acquitted of his manslaughter.
Dilorom Sulaymanova (36) and her two children, who were in court, broke down in tears as the verdict was read out at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.
She was acquitted by the jury on the direction of trial judge Cornelius Murphy following submissions by the defence.
Mrs Sulaymanova had pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of her husband, Abduazim Sulaymanov, at their rented home at Pinewood, Ballinlough Road, Cork, on January 6th, 2007.
She had claimed that she acted only in self-defence after the dead man had subjected her, her children and her elderly mother to a savage attack on New Year's Eve.
Her husband died in hospital six days after being stabbed.
The court heard that Mr Sulaymanov had regularly beaten his wife and had at one point broken her nose.
On the night of December 31st, he had ordered his wife to return with her mother and the two children from the city centre where they had gone to watch a New Year's Eve fireworks display.
The court heard that he had attacked his wife as soon as they got back to the house, smashing her head off the door with such force that he broke a glass panel.
He then pushed her mother to the floor where she landed on the glass and cut her hand. He also assaulted both of his children.
All five occupants of the house had to be taken to hospital by ambulance following the altercation in the house that night, including Mrs Sulaymanova's mother, who had to spend six days in hospital.
The accused woman said in her statement to gardaí that she had stabbed her husband while he was sitting on a small chair in their bedroom and she was kneeling down.
She said she did not know how many times she stabbed him. She had wanted to hit him more but gardaí came into the room and took her outside.
"I am disappointed he did not die. . . it is not normal to keep suffering and take beatings all the time," she stated.
Defence counsel Blaise O'Carroll SC submitted that the woman had clearly acted only in self-defence.
