Trial in the case in which a Motswana woman, Ruth Mwaka Azali, was shot dead by her United States of America (USA) husband in May last year is ongoing in Cleveland, Ohio.

The husband Omnisun Azali, who is an Iraq war veteran and also son of a Judge, is charged with aggravated murder of his wife.

However, according to several USA media reports, in his defence, Azali says he did not intentionally kill Ruth. He claims it was selfdefence as Ruth fired at him first following an argument.

Court documents allegedly reveal that Ruth was found lying in a pool of blood on her couch at their home, where the shooting happened.

A gun was found a few feet from her body and her DNA on the trigger. There were also three bullet holes from the gun in the walls of the home.

In defence, Azali says he shot Ruth three times in the head.

Azali further argues that it was not important how many shots he fired because he was fearing for his life.

Nonetheless, prosecutors have allegedly revealed that Azali shot Ruth twice on the head while he was a few feet from her while the last bullet was shot with the gun pressed to her cheek.

The prosecutors also questioned why Azali rushed to his mother’s house after shooting his wife instead of calling the police.

His Judge mother, is alleged to have been the one that informed the police that there might have been shootings at her son’s house and someone might be injured.

She then drove her son to his home where they found that the police had already arrived, Azali was then arrested.

The couple’s two children aged eight and nine - a boy and a girl, also testified in court. The kids are alleged to have been home when their mother was killed.

Both kids allegedly told court that they saw their father holding a gun and not their mother.

The boy said he saw his father point a gun at their mother and she fell. While the daughter on the other hand said that when they heard their parents arguing they went outside, they did not see their father actually killing their mother.

It is not yet clear if court will be able to incorporate the evidence given by the children to make its determination of what really transpired given that the two children gave two conflicting statements.

The trial ends this coming Friday after which it will be up to the Judge to tell if he finds Azali guilty of aggravated murder or not.

Back home, Ruth’s family, the Tawana’s in Mabele village are devastated.

They told The Midweek Sun that they do not understand why their child had to be killed in such a

manner. The worst thing is that they learnt that Ruth was dead through social media.

It then became a mountain to climb for them to get the body repatriated to

Botswana. Ruth was buried exactly two months later following a rigorous expatriation process that cost them huge sums of money.