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Munich (AP) - In the murder trial after the death of his wife, the defendant denied the allegations against him on Thursday before the Munich I district court.
"He did not kill his wife," said his lawyer Adam Ahmed at the start of the trial.
"The charge is completely denied."
The indictment "constructed a capital crime," said Ahmed.
But there is "currently no stranger killing".
The public prosecutor's office assumes fatal intimate partner violence and accuses the now 61-year-old Bosnian of having killed his wife with a head shot in 2015 after 17 years together.
He claims, however, that his wife killed herself.
After various reports on traces of smoke and the angle of fire, the public prosecutor decided to bring charges against the husband because of great doubts about the suicide thesis.
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He was only arrested in 2019, years after the alleged crime against the mother of his five children.
The prosecution assumes that the defendant killed his wife “driven by jealousy” because she had recently separated from him and had entered into relationships with other men.
The public prosecutor said that he was already "obsessed with control" in the marriage and wanted to have it "all to himself".
"He checked her every step."
The brother of the dead, who appears as a joint plaintiff in the proceedings against his brother-in-law, described his sister as "very much alive".
"She was such a daredevil, doer," he said.
"And a bit of a drama queen sometimes."
Her husband on the other hand seemed "depressed" to him, which he put on his difficult childhood.
He claimed ownership of his sister.
She felt that she “didn't have enough air to breathe”.
"She wasn't allowed to work, she wasn't allowed to study," said her brother.
"She had to be careful what she did and what she was allowed to say or not."
The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) has been explicitly recording acts of violence in partnerships across Germany since 2015 and sees a worrying upward trend: From 2018 to 2019, the number of victims of violent crime in partnerships rose again, albeit only slightly by 0.74 percent, to 141,792.
In 2015 the number was significantly lower at 127,457.
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In Bavaria alone, the number of women who were killed by the hand of their partner or ex-partner is in the double-digit range.
According to the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office (LKA), there were 15 women in 2019, 23 in 2018 and 30 in 2017.
The vast majority of them (around 13,000 each) are women.
The LKA has not yet announced the figures for 2020, in which the Corona crisis and the associated lockdown could also play a role, and referred to the official presentation by the Interior Ministry.
Experts believe that cases of domestic violence may have increased during times of restricted exit.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210211-99-400413 / 2
BKA information on intimate partner violence