Justice: Process: Brutal revenge on ex-girlfriend and flight to Iran

justice
Trial: Brutal revenge on ex-girlfriend and escape to Iran

At the start of the trial in Berlin, the accused covered his face. Photo: Joerg Carstensen/dpa

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A 54-year-old has to defend himself in court because he is said to have raped and severely abused his ex-girlfriend. At the start of the process, the alleged perpetrator remained silent.

Bound, gagged, mutilated with a knife: a man is said to have tried to destroy his former girlfriend’s attractiveness out of revenge.

While the mother was nearly beaten to death, the young daughter was tied up in another room. More than nine years after the attack on the woman, the alleged perpetrator has been on trial in Berlin since Thursday. The charges are two counts of attempted murder, rape and aggravated assault.

The defense attorneys for the 54-year-old said at the beginning of the process that their client would not comment at the moment. The Iraqi-born man of Dutch nationality is accused of abusing his former girlfriend to deprive her of her womanhood, according to the indictment. After the fact, he fled to Iran.

Life-threatening injuries

The accused is said to have broken into the woman’s apartment in Berlin-Schoeneberg in October 2012. He is said to have sexually abused her and severely injured her breasts, nose and genitals with a knife. Before that, he locked her then ten-year-old daughter in another room.

According to the indictment, the critically injured woman – an Iranian woman living in Berlin at the time – managed to reach a window with her last strength. A passer-by heard her call for help and alerted the police.

Lawyer Roland Weber, who represents the woman as a joint plaintiff, said: “The injuries are unimaginably cruel.” Thanks to “outstanding medical help”, the woman is doing well today, given the circumstances. In fact, the defendant said “that he had to do it because she wanted to break up with him”.

In Iran, the man was reportedly convicted of the allegations that have now been negotiated, was in prison until his release in May 2019 and then came to the Netherlands. He was arrested there in 2020 and extradited to Germany in July 2021.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) had previously dealt with the question of whether there was a case in which double jeopardy was prohibited. At least with regard to the extradition, the ECJ had denied that, it said. The trial will resume on January 27th.

dpa

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