Honor killing trial: “My sister is trying to be a slut” | EUROtoday

Dhe man is respiration closely. His panting will be clearly heard on the recording of the decision to the emergency quantity 110 on December 9, 2023; the recording of the phone name is now being performed in room 218 of the Bremen regional courtroom. “Yes, hello, Hussein A. is my name,” says the person. “I just killed my sister. Did you hear that? I stabbed them with a knife,” he says and provides his handle.

“We’re sending colleagues,” says the police officer on the opposite finish of the road after a pause, and it appears he doesn’t know precisely whether or not what the caller is saying is critical. When the officers arrived a couple of minutes later and stormed by the condo constructing to the highest of the condo, the door was open. Hussein A. permits himself to be arrested with out resistance.

Murder for base motives

Judge Gesa Kasper, who led the primary day of the trial final Wednesday, might have a legally uncomplicated trial forward of her: A brother kills his sister, he confesses the crime to the officers who discover the physique.

But each the crime and the motive appear incomprehensible. Hussein A. is alleged to have murdered his sister Ilham, 23, at round 11:20 p.m. on that December day for “base motives” as a result of he didn’t agree with the life-style of “the injured party” based mostly on “his cultural ideas”. He due to this fact determined to kill her with the intention to restore his honor, the prosecutor alleges in her indictment.

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Hussein A. used a kitchen knife and rammed the 18.5 centimeter lengthy blade at the very least 5 occasions into the higher physique of his sister, who was mendacity on the mattress in her room. So he pierced the pericardium, hit the liver, intestines and a rib in addition to the decrease lobe of the lung. He stabbed so laborious that the knife bent.

On the primary day of the trial in Bremen, a police officer who first arrived on the condo with a feminine officer reported on the operation. The witness says how he discovered Ilham A.

Air and blood flowed from the injuries

“I spoke to her, immediately felt her pulse and checked her breathing,” says the officer. “But there was nothing left.” As he started CPR and chest compressions, he observed air and blood escaping from the centimeter-wide wounds. The emergency physician might solely decide dying.

Hussein A. appeared very calm to the officers, the policewoman testified in courtroom. “He immediately talked to us: he did it, he defended his honor, he did it with a knife, he knew what was happening now and had packed his bag for prison,” stories the officer. “He saw it completely emotionlessly, there were no tears in his eyes.”

Just a few days later, investigators discovered two handwritten letters in his condo by which he had defined his intentions earlier than the crime. Judge Kasper reads them out. “I killed my sister so I could save my honor, my sister is trying to be a bitch, she can be. In order for me to have honor, I must kill her. I can't have a future without honor. To my sisters: I love you.”

At this second, the ladies who had beforehand smiled and greeted Hussein A. from the spectator bench had been sobbing. They are two sisters and the defendant's fiancée. Even although their huge brother has admitted to murdering their sister, they appear to face by him. “Hussein, Hussein,” they shout as he leaves the room throughout a break. One of the ladies is holding a child in her arms. Hussein A. lived in an condo with three sisters, a brother-in-law and two youngsters.

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He additionally wrote a letter to his fiancée. “Darling, I’m sorry I left you alone. I wished to be with you and stick with you, however Allah doesn't need us to marry now,” the judge reads.

The Somali women are crying. Hussein A. listens motionlessly as his statements are read out. He will not make a statement today, says his public defender Alexander Gellinger. “My client’s mental state will play a role,” he says simply. Hussein A. spoke to the psychiatric expert Imke Mundorf-Vetter; She is scheduled to present her report on May 7th, the next day of the hearing.

Then it should be about the motive. According to the defense attorney, the Somali family A. has been living in Germany “for a few years.” It is still unclear how the defendant lived here, whether he worked and how the family got along here. Given the conditions in Somalia, things should have been better for them in Germany.

Your home country is one of the poorest in the world. Civil wars, droughts, floods and famine have undermined the state order and transformed large parts of Somalia into a lawless area. There are few aid organizations that dare to enter the country.

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Only about half of the Somali population can read and write; for women the proportion drops to a third. They have significantly fewer rights than men and are considered “bearers of family honor” in a strictly patriarchal society.

The German women's rights organization Terre des Femmes eV has determined that 45 percent of Somali women are married before the age of 18, arranged by their families, and eight percent are even married before the age of 15. On the one hand, this is because, according to customs, women must enter marriage as virgins, and on the other hand, these unions are intended to protect women.

Almost all Somali women have undergone genital mutilation

Sexual violence is commonplace, but rarely punished. In 2021, the UN reported an “alarming increase” in sexual violence by 80 percent, writes the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) in a study. According to these estimates, by 2022, 2.3 million Somali women will have become victims of such “gender-based” acts.

It is estimated that between 96 and 98 percent of Somali women have undergone genital mutilation – the highest rate of this type of serious bodily harm in the world. This, the reasoning goes, protects the girls from desired and unwanted sexual intercourse and can maintain their “purity,” reports Terre des Femmes.

In his letter, Hussein A. explicitly referred to the lifestyle of his sister, whom he described as a “slut”. It is still unclear what exactly she is said to have done that caused her brother to kill her. He wrote: “Sorry mom for not taking better care of my future. I had to do this.” Although he was aware that he would be going to prison for years, Hussein A. put the need to restore “honor” as he knew it above his own life plans.

So-called honor killings always have parallels. The perpetrators primarily come from patriarchal societies in which the family has a prominent position. Women have to submit to the unwritten rules. Even an alleged “misdemeanor” such as going for a walk without a male companion can result in severe sanctions from the family. According to statistics from the Federal Criminal Police Office, a total of 133 women and 33 men died at the hands of partners or ex-partners in Germany in 2022. Only very few of these cases are considered honor killings. There is no further analysis, for example about crimes committed by brothers, fathers or other relatives.

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Terre des Femmes found that at least 26 people in Germany were victims of a completed or attempted “honor killing” between 2021 and 2022. Nine women and four men died. The research was based on the analysis of newspaper articles. According to the organization, it shows that “a free and self-determined life is still not a given for many women, even in Germany.”

Judge Kasper tried to give the woman a face in the trial. “We get to know the defendant, but not the sister, so I would like to at least show a picture of her from the file.” The large screen in the hall then shows a photo of Ilham A.

The picture shows a woman who still has girlish facial features, she is smiling and wearing a bright blue headscarf. According to witness statements, she always left the house with a chador. December 9, 2023, when her brother took her life, was her 23rd birthday.