Man stabs wife in Salzburg: 20 years in prison

According to the indictment, on October 6, 2023, he stabbed his wife at least 13 times with a kitchen knife. The accused confessed to the crime, but his lawyer ruled it was attempted murder. The verdict is not final because the defendant’s defense attorney has filed an appeal and the public prosecutor has not made any statement. The jury’s verdict was unanimous 8-0.

Desire for separation ended in bloodbath

On the first day of the trial in February, prosecutor Ricarda Eder spoke of a relationship act, an “attempted femicide.” The victim wanted a separation in June 2023, but due to the defendant’s lack of acceptance, this wish ultimately ended in a bloodbath. The mother of their nine children, who lives separately from him, was accompanying two of her offspring to a childcare center.

The investigation has shown that the previously blameless Somali man initially wanted to persuade his 43-year-old wife on the way to the childcare center in the morning to be allowed to return to their shared apartment. At this point, he was already banned from entering and approaching her because he was said to have physically attacked his wife in September 2023 and then threatened and coerced her dangerously over the phone.

Attacked in front of kindergarten

When the woman did not agree to his demand to return to the apartment on October 6th, the man on the sidewalk next to a busy street in front of the child care center pulled the knife with a blade length of six centimeters out of his trouser pocket and stabbed her in the stomach, in the chest, face and arms.

The woman suffered a life-threatening stab wound. If a brave witness hadn’t intervened and the police hadn’t happened to be there right away, the mother of nine children would no longer be alive, the prosecutor emphasized. The defendant decided to kill her, “a spontaneous decision is out of the question.” A psychiatric report confirmed that the 53-year-old had limited mental capacity at the time of the crime.

“I only cared about my children”

However, the accused, who has lived in Salzburg since 2012 and has been married to the victim for 19 years, denied intent to kill at the trial. “I admit that I committed the crime. To this day I don’t know where exactly I stabbed her. I can’t explain why I did it,” he said to presiding judge Ilona Schalwich-Mozes. “I only cared about my children. I wanted to return home.”

The defendant was in a life crisis, said his defense attorney Christoph Hirsch. “He was without a job, his wife was disposing of his children and he had no fixed place to sleep.” The man chased his desire to fix everything again. The crime was committed in a generally understandable, violent emotional state; it was not an attempted murder, but rather an attempted manslaughter. The crime was committed in an exceptional emotional situation, in a kind of bloodlust. As far as the incidents before the knife attack are concerned, the defendant pleads guilty to negligent bodily harm, but not to dangerous threats or serious coercion.

Service: In Austria, women who experience violence can find help and information, among other things

• at the women’s helpline 0800-222-555, www.frauenhelpline.at
• at the Association of Autonomous Austrian Women’s Shelters (AÖF) at www.aoef.at
• Austrian violence protection centers on 0800/700-217

Hhelp in the state of Salzburg, among other things

• at the Salzburg Violence Protection Center on 0662/87 01 00
• at the Salzburg women’s emergency hotline on 0662/88 11 00
• at the shelters in Salzburg on 0800/44 99 21
• at the Innergebirg women’s emergency hotline on 0664/500 68 68

If there is imminent danger or if police intervention is required on site, the police can be reached around the clock on the emergency number 133.