A woman who clubbed, drugged and burned her husband’s body in a furnace has walked free after a court heard he had battered and abused her for more than two decades before she finally snapped.

Elizamar de Moura Alves, 36, had been kept in custody since her arrest last year accused of aggravated homicide and concealment of a corpse.

But after it emerged that she had only knocked her husband unconscious while defending herself from an attack, she was freed by the court.

Then she told the court how she drugged him with Diazepam pills and took three days to incinerate his body in a furnace on their property.

Prosecutors had detailed how victim Erni Pereira da Cunha, 42, had been killed at the couple’s home in Colonia Nova in the municipality of Dom Feliciano in the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul on 15th February 2021.

Defence attorneys claimed Elizimar had acted out of fear of a revenge attack by her husband.

Despite testifying to being abused by her husband for two decades, Elizamar had never reported him to the police, the court heard.

Presided over by Judge Daniel de Souza Fleury, the trial was held in the municipality of Camaqua, about 27 miles from where the crime took place.

And after just 13 hours in court, the jury accepted the defence team’s arguments and Elizamar was acquitted and released her.

The decision can be appealed by prosecutors.