The Samtse District Court has ordered the civil commitment of a woman who stabbed her husband to death last year.
Civil commitment is one of the alternatives to sentencing in which a defendant found to be mentally unsound is court-ordered into treatment.
The court found the 38-year-old woman who killed her husband a year ago in Gomtu is mentally ill. In the judgement passed yesterday, the court ordered the woman to be committed to a government recognized rehabilitation center for treatment.
The court also asked the Office of the Attorney General to follow up on the defendant’s treatment and provide the court with an update every six months. The defendant will be handed over to her family once she recovers.
The Penal Code of Bhutan states that a court shall, in lieu of imprisonment, order the civil commitment of the defendant to a hospital or other institutions for psychiatric or other rehabilitative treatment if found to be clinically insane or suffering from a mental abnormality or chronic condition that significantly impairs the defendant’s capacity to make sagacious judgments.
