In addition, admission to an institution for mentally abnormal offenders was decreed. He is said to have killed the victim in April 2021 with 15 stitches in the head, chest and neck. The prosecutor was convinced that the woman was “executed by her husband,” while the defense attorney spoke of an “act of affection.” The judgment is not final.
With 15 knife wounds in the head, chest and neck, a 44-year-old is said to have killed his wife in Graz out of jealousy in April 2021. On Monday, the accused had to answer before a jury in the criminal district court.
The accused Afghan came to Austria with his wife and four children in 2015. He is said to have constantly checked the 38-year-old and finally accused her of having a relationship with a compatriot. The police had to intervene several times, but the wife repeatedly withdrew her complaints. At the request of the defense attorney, her statements about her husband’s violence could not be used for the current proceedings. “So we no longer have any statements from her, she was executed by her husband,” said prosecutor Hansjörg Bacher, but emphasized: “I will describe the act in all its brutality and mercilessness.”
“Traumatic War Experiences”
On April 7 in the morning, the defendant waited until all four children were out of the house, then the argument escalated again. The 44-year-old grabbed a metal doorstop and hit his wife on the head. Then he took a kitchen knife and attacked her with it. “He stabbed violently against the head, chest and neck, she tried to protect herself with her hands, and her thumb was almost severed,” the prosecutor described the bloody deed. The attacker only stopped when the knife lodged in the sternum – not even the coroner could remove it. “The whole thing represents an execution, an execution in which the victim didn’t have the slightest chance,” said the prosecutor.
The defense attorney cited his client’s “traumatic war experiences”. The question is “why the fuses are blown in such a way”. The whole thing was an “affect act”. The 44-year-old is “not an ice-cold planning, cold-blooded killer,” emphasized the lawyer.
When questioned, the Afghan pleaded guilty. Married life was good, he said. On the evening before the crime, his wife was “constantly busy with the cell phone instead of making the children a meal”. He thought she was communicating with his rival again. This assumption led to him completely freaking out the next day. Incidentally, a check of the mobile phone revealed that the victim had had no contact with this man, at least by telephone.
Then he told how he had hit her on the head with the metal doorstop. “When I saw the blood, I got scared,” he said. “Before what?” Judge Michaela Lapanje wanted to know. “In front of the police,” the man replied. Then he “lost control” and grabbed the knife. After being stabbed 15 times, “I was very scared and shaking all over,” he described the situation. According to him, his wife was gasping on the floor when he left the apartment. “Where are you going?” asked the judge. “To the police, so they might call the ambulance,” the Afghan replied, adding: “I regret it very much. I didn’t intend to kill her.”
jury agreed
Court psychiatrist Christoph Ebner confirmed that the 44-year-old had a “personality change after extreme stress” caused by the war experiences in Afghanistan. This led to an “unstable, paranoid personality disorder”. In addition, the expert diagnosed a “decreased impulse control”. Overall, this results in a “mental and mental abnormality of a higher degree, which is why the public prosecutor announced at the beginning that he would apply for admission to an institution for mentally abnormal lawbreakers.
The jury found the defendant guilty by an 8-0 vote of murdering his wife. In addition to life imprisonment, he was committed to an institution for mentally abnormal offenders. The 44-year-old announced a nullity complaint, the prosecutor did not give an explanation.
Source: Nachrichten
