By Karin Hendrich
In the trial surrounding the violent death of a 34-year-old Afghan woman, the defense attorneys for one of the two accused brothers of the woman failed with an application to have the arrest warrant lifted.
Killer brother Mahdi H. (23) remains in custody!
Day 34 in the trial of the killing of his sister Maryam (34). On September 15, he applied for his release and the arrest warrant to be lifted. His co-defendant brother Yousuf (27) did it alone. At least that was his late confession a week earlier before the district court: “Mahdi left the room and also the apartment. … Then there was a fight between me and my sister.”
He choked her. Suddenly she was dead. He then slit her throat because otherwise the body would not have fit in the suitcase.
But the 22nd Chamber, chaired by Judge Thomas Gross, rejected the application. “The urgent suspicion” still exists: on the basis of witness interviews, video recordings, telephone monitoring, mobile phone evaluations.
Again and again the court referred to the public prosecutor’s office. They assume that both brothers throttled the victim together, choked him, slit his throat. Mahdi H. was also not exonerated by the testimony of his brother (who had previously exercised his right to remain silent up to the 30th day of the trial).
The older brother’s statement had “plausibility issues”. Among other things, the facts described by the accused do not match the situation in which the corpse was found. The traces at the alleged crime scene also raise doubts about Yousuf H.’s description of the crime. Despite a careful search, no traces of fighting or blood were found there…
According to a preliminary assessment, there are “certain indications” of a killing to restore family honor – decided by the family council in Afghanistan and carried out by the brothers.
Mahdi faces life imprisonment if convicted of murder. There is therefore a risk of flight.
Maryam H. initially disappeared without a trace on July 13, 2021. Until August 5, her body was found in a dumping ground in Bavaria. The head in a garbage bag, the airways taped up. A gaping wound in the throat. Videos from Südkreuz train station show the brothers towing a heavy trolley case.
Continued: Friday (October 14)