先住民女性連続殺人、男に終身刑４回　カナダ

【オワタＡＦＰ＝時事】カナダの裁判所は２８日、マニトバ州ウィニペグで先住民女性４人をレイプして殺害した上、遺体を切断してごみに出したとして第一級殺人罪で有罪判決を受けていた男に終身刑４回を言い渡した。（写真は、被害者のモーガン・ハリスさんの娘）
　ジェレミー・スキビッキ被告（３７）側は、精神の障害により責任能力が制限されていたと主張していたが証明できず、先月、第一級殺人罪で有罪判決を言い渡された。
　グレン・ジョヤル判事は判決文で、スキビッキ被告を「残忍暴虐」と非難し、２５年間仮釈放の可能性がない終身刑４回の同時執行を言い渡した。
　現地メディアによると、ジョヤル判事は２９日に法廷で、「（判決は）残念ながら、これらの罪の重さとあなたの道徳的有責性を十分に反映していない」と付け加えた。
　裁判によると、スキビッキ被告は、２０２２年３月～５月にホームレスシェルターで出会った先住民女性たちを標的にした。
　被告は女性たちを自宅アパートに連れ帰り、性的暴行を加えた後、絞殺したり浴槽で溺死させたりした。さらに、遺体に対しても性的行為に及んだ。
　被害者４人のうち、モーガン・ハリスさんとマーセデス・ミランさんの遺体は、ウィニペグ市の北にある廃棄物処分場に運ばれたとみられており、今も捜索が続いている。３人目の被害者、レベッカ・コントワさんの遺体の一部は、別の廃棄物処分場とウィニペグ市内のごみ箱から発見された。
　スキビッキ被告が殺害を自供した４人目の被害者は２０代とされるが、身元は明らかになっておらず、遺体も見つかっていない。地元の先住民の指導者たちは４人目の被害者に「Ｍａｓｈｋｏｄｅ　Ｂｉｚｈｉｋｉ＇ｉｋｗｅ（バッファローの女）」という名前を与えた。
　カナダでは先住民女性の殺害と失踪が横行しており、２０１９年に公表された全国調査の報告書では「ジェノサイド（集団殺害）」と表現されている。多くの人々は本件について、こうした先住民女性の苦境の象徴だと見なしている。
　先住民女性は、カナダの全女性人口の５％を占めるにすぎないが、フェミサイド（女性や少女を標的とした殺人）の被害者の約２０％を占めている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/08/29-17:03）

A Canadian man who raped and murdered four Indigenous women, carved up their bodies and disposed of them in garbage bins, was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison.
Jeremy Skibicki, 37, was found guilty last month of the first-degree murders in Winnipeg, Manitoba, after the defense failed to prove that mental illness limited his capacity to commit the crimes.
Justice Glenn Joyal, who accused him of inhumanity and barbarism in his written verdict, handed Skibicki four concurrent life sentences -- with no chance of parole for 25 years -- in a case seen by many as a symbol of the plight of Indigenous women in a country where they face disproportionate violence.
In court on Wednesday he added that the sentence regrettably does not adequately reflect the gravity of these offences and your moral culpability, according to local media.
Skibicki targeted Indigenous women he met in homeless shelters between March and May 2022, his trial heard.
He brought them back to his apartment to sexually assault them before strangulating or drowning them in his bathtub, and then engaging in further sexual acts on their bodies.
The remains of his victims Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran are believed to have ended up in a landfill north of the city, which is currently being searched, while the partial remains of another victim, Rebecca Contois, were found in a garbage bin in Winnipeg and in a separate landfill.
The body of a fourth, unidentified woman in her 20s, whom Skibicki confessed to killing along with the others, is still missing. She was given the name Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, by local Indigenous leaders.
Harris's daughter Elle said listening at the trial how her mother was killed was horrific to go through, according to local media.
The heinous crimes committed by Mr. Skibicki have left deep scars on First Nations communities, Grand Chief Cathy Merrick of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs was also quoted as telling the court.
At the time of Skibicki's arrest in December 2022, the then-minister of Crown-Indigenous relations Marc Miller said the case was part of a legacy of a devastating history of Canada's treatment of Indigenous women that has reverberations today.
Indigenous women represent about one-fifth of all women killed in gender-related homicides in the country -- even though they are just five percent of the female population.
In 2019, a national commission went so far as to describe the thousands of murders and disappearances of First Nations women over the years as a genocide.
In his July verdict, Judge Joyal said the case was emblematic of much of what is associated with the tragedies that underlie the grim reality of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada.