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Regional court in Flensburg
Photo: Frank Molter / picture alliance / dpa
The Flensburg regional court has sentenced the husband to life imprisonment in the trial surrounding the death of a woman who was run over by a truck on the A7 near Schleswig. The court considered attempted murder combined with grievous bodily harm and bodily harm resulting in death to be proven. The 36-year-old defendant has had to answer for the murder of his wife at the Flensburg regional court since May 2022.
The woman was run over by a truck on November 20, 2021 on the motorway near the Schleswig/Schuby junction. She died of multiple trauma caused by the accident. However, she had around 40 knife wounds. Several of them were potentially fatal, said the presiding judge. Only the defendant could have inflicted this on her.
The presiding judge said that there was an obvious intention to kill, given the large number of stabs. "There is no other sensible explanation for these attacks." The man wanted to punish his wife because she withheld his children from him. "It wasn't about the children, it was just about the humiliation." The court assumes that the crime was planned: "It wasn't a spontaneous crime," but rather one that was originally planned differently.
The defendant and his wife both came from Syria and lived in Aarhus, Denmark. The court was convinced that he had also been violent towards his wife in the past. The Danish authorities had withdrawn his custody of their children.
The public prosecutor and co-prosecution had demanded a life sentence for murder. The defense attorneys saw no motive for murder and no intent to kill. They considered a conviction for grievous bodily harm and a sentence of less than five years to be appropriate. The verdict is not yet legally binding.
kfr/dpa