A Kurdish refugee was today jailed for two years for threatening to kill his wife.
Ismail Karim Mataay, 44, was earlier found guilty by a jury of making the threat against his wife and a fifth breach of a protection order she took out against him.
At today's sentencing in Christchurch District Court, Judge Colin Doherty said leaving her husband was a significant move for the woman and placed considerable pressure on her because of the cultural and social attitudes of Mataay and the Kurdish community.
She now lived in fear because leaving and defying husbands had led to the deaths of other wives in her culture.
"She has also experienced isolation from the local Kurdish community."
Judge Doherty said Mataay had not acknowledged his propensity for violence.
He imposed a two-year prison term for the latest charges, as well as resentencing for a breach of an earlier sentence of supervision.
He imposed conditions that Mataay must undertake counselling, a Stopping Violence programme, and courses to improve his English communication and literacy skills.
The couple are believed to have married in a refugee camp and then emigrated to New Zealand late in 2005, about a year before the wife took out a protection order against him.