A prosecutor is seeking a maximum sentence of 16 years for Ming Ting Mancel, the Dublin-based French woman on trial for the murder of her daughter, Catherine, in Reykjavik last June. Her defence is seeking an acquittal at the Reykjavik district court trial, which concluded on Tuesday. Mancel, who lived in Leopardstown, Dublin, until last June, is accused of murdering her daughter, Catherine, in co-operation with her deceased husband Emeric. The bodies of Catherine and Emeric were found at the Reykjavik Edition Hotel on June 14th last year, after what Ming Ting Mancel said was a planned collective suicide that she survived. The court must now decide whether Catherine had been free to choose her own fate, or whether her life was taken by her parents against her will.Prosecutor Karl Ingi Vilbergsson said that Ming Ting Mancel was accused of the murder of her daughter, which was carried out by an attempt at asphyxiation and by two stab wounds to the heart, the final one of which killed her.The French woman maintains her husband was dying of kidney failure and wanted to take his own life and that she could not survive without him, so they had decided on a joint suicide. She claims they had told Catherine of their plan while still in Dublin and that she had wanted to join them as she did not want to be left on her own without her parents. Ming Ting Mancel says Emeric stabbed Catherine while she held her hand.Vilbergsson said that Catherine Mancel was in the prime of her life and that the question to be answered was whether she wanted to die or was the innocent victim of a decision by her parents.The prosecutor contended that Ming Ting Mancel had herself admitted that Catherine did not want to die in this manner, by being stabbed with a knife that her father had brought from Ireland, and argued she did not want to die that day.He said that marks on Catherine’s neck were evidence that she had put up a struggle and tried to take off the noose around her neck on the night of the events.He also stated that Ming Ting Mancel could have called for help at any time after Catherine had been stabbed, but that she had done nothing to prevent her daughter’s death.Her declaration that she had killed two people when the police went into their hotel bedroom was proof of her guilt, he added. Vilbergsson is looking for 16 years in prison for Ming Ting Mancel, the maximum sentence that can be imposed.Defence lawyer Ómar Örn Bjarnþórsson is calling for an acquittal of all the prosecution’s claims. He said there was no indication Catherine Mancel was forced to take part in this act.When Ming Ting Mancel stated she killed two people, he argued that “this was not a declaration of guilt or a confession but rather an explanation”. He also said that it was a misunderstanding when Mancel was heard saying at the hospital that, “I didn’t want my daughter to be left alone”. And it was rather her daughter who didn’t want to be alone.He said Ming Ting Mancel was heavily medicated on ketamine, oxycodone, and fentanyl from the time that she was taken from the hotel room in an ambulance, as well as having sustained a lung injury, and that it was very clear that she wasn’t in a condition to be able to answer questions from the police. He added that the police had questioned her in English, which was not her native language, and that nothing during this interrogation could be used to determine her guilt.Bjarnþórsson further stated that nothing indicated that Catherine had attempted to break free and that the marks on her neck proved nothing.Her lawyer said in closing that the wish of the victim was the same as the wish of the accused – to take her own life.With the trial concluded, the panel of judges has four weeks to reach a verdict.