Life imprisonment for attack on ex-partner

The force of the stabs was so strong that the knife got stuck in the young woman's head: A 29-year-old man was sentenced to life imprisonment for the almost fatal attack on his ex-partner. "It was a knife attack carried out from behind," said the presiding judge of the district court on Monday when he pronounced his verdict. The chamber rated this as attempted murder in conjunction with serious and dangerous bodily harm. Before the act, the woman had finally separated from the man.

The accused attacked the then 19-year-old woman from behind at a bus stop in June 2022 and stabbed her several times with a knife. She suffered serious cuts on her arm, face and head. The final blow was so powerful that the knife got stuck in the young woman's skull and the handle broke off. She herself had called the emergency number with the last of her strength and in desperation.

But the perpetrator fled. And not only that. He changed his shirt to cover his tracks, went to the vocational school as usual, involved students and teachers in everyday conversations and texted her a few minutes after the crime with the words "Did you fall asleep?". All of this clearly indicated that the attack did not happen in an emotional state. On the contrary: "It's so cold that it freezes your blood in your veins," said the judge.

In addition, the evidence was overwhelming. "The defendant had left many clues, which he served us like on a silver platter." It wasn't just the telephone connections and chat history that burdened him. The Afghan also carried the broken knife handle in his pocket. A few hours after the attack, the police arrested the man at the school.

The judge also pointed out that the case was not without a certain tragedy: "If the accused had appeared just a minute or two later, none of this would have happened and the joint plaintiff would have been safe. That is tragic and also very bitter.” The young woman was on her way to Berlin, where she wanted to get a replacement passport. The day before, the accused had taken her passport from her so that she could not fly to Turkey with her family. At the bus stop she was waiting for her ride to Berlin.

"The cruel and brutal act was the culmination of a relationship that began in 2017," the presiding judge said. The accused had been married to the victim under Islamic law since 2021, and the marriage lasted eight months. She was his third wife.

Because the 29-year-old secretly filmed the common and not always consensual sex during the relationship, he is also responsible for violation of the most personal sphere of life through image recordings in seven cases - in one of them in the act of rape and in another in the act of sexual assault - To be sentenced. During one of the recordings, he even grinned at the camera, showed the victory sign and pointed to himself with a thumbs-up.

The young woman only survived the attack in the summer of 2022 thanks to an emergency operation lasting several hours. The woman may even have been lucky that the knife broke off during the attack, the judge said. Otherwise, the defendant might have stabbed his victim further.

A large scar can still be clearly seen on the young woman's right cheek, the facial expressions on the left side of her face are paralyzed. During the verdict, she repeatedly wipes her eyes with a handkerchief. The judge: "The only 20-year-old will have to wear the clearly visible scars for the rest of her life. Every day she looks in the mirror and is reminded of the terrible deed.”