More than eleven years after the murder of her husband, the Cologne district court has sentenced a woman to life imprisonment. Her lover at the time must be imprisoned for aiding and abetting the murder for four and a half years.
The court found it proven that the 38-year-old had first given poison to her violent husband and then killed him with numerous stab wounds in the upper body. The co-defendant 45-year-old helped her then in the division of the body in the bathroom. The body parts were then disposed of in the Maas in Belgium.
In the process, the defendant had invoked self-defense. But the chamber did not follow. The judge said in the verdict, although numerous witnesses described the victim as "quick-tempered, brutal, misogynist and socially incompetent". Scars on the body of the defendants also showed that she was repeatedly abused by her husband.
However, it is clear that the woman acted in her act of self-defense, said the judge. The even distribution of knife cuts on the victim's upper body shows that no "dynamic combat action" has taken place. In addition, the defendant had suffered no injuries in the dispute. Against an act of self-defense have also said that the body was disassembled and sunk in the Meuse - "in the hope that the fish do the rest".
Witnessing television program
Just a few days after the crime in June 2008, pedestrians had discovered body parts. But the police had no trace in the spectacular murder case for a long time. Movement into the investigation came only when the ZDF program "Aktenzeichen XY ... unsolved" was searched for witnesses. Thereupon a man came in, who could identify the victim because of a tattoo on the shoulder. This put the investigators on the track of the defendants.
Turning to the co-defendants, the judge said: "They are scarcely scarred by complicity." Without his commitment to help the 38-year-old help with the removal of the body, if the woman had not committed the crime, the court was safe. However, the 45-year-old had no influence on when the deed was carried out and thus had "no conviction".
