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Berlin: Trial against two brothers after the death of their sister – "You see it as a matter of honor"

2022-03-11T19:35:09.083Z


Maryam H., who fled to Berlin from Afghanistan, is said to have been killed by her brothers. Now a friend testified in court - about a world in which women are not allowed to be free and even have to fear their families.


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Defendant Mahdi H. in the Berlin district court: "She said that if they found out, they would kill her"

Photo: Olaf Wagner / IMAGO

The young Afghan woman is tense.

As a witness in court, she must tell the truth.

If she lies, she faces a penalty.

If she doesn't lie, she may be at risk from the family.

The witness is afraid.

She is afraid that the same thing will happen to her as her best friend Maryam.

Maryam H. disappeared in Berlin on July 13, 2021.

On August 5, 2021, the body of the 34-year-old was found in a forest in Bavaria.

Since March, her brothers, Yousuf and Mahdi H., have had to face charges of murder before the Berlin Regional Court.

According to the indictment, the 26 and 23-year-old men are said to have killed their sister because she had a new relationship with a man after their divorce.

The brothers remain silent in court.

For two days of negotiations, the girlfriend has to provide information about the life of Maryam H.

»She wanted to be her own boss«

The witness came to Berlin from Afghanistan in 2015.

She divorced her husband, the father of her children.

Since then she has been trying to find her way in a country whose language she hardly speaks.

The young woman is illiterate.

She met Maryam H. in a shelter for refugees.

Maryam H. had also fled Afghanistan to Berlin.

She was also a mother of two children, and she also divorced her husband in Germany.

The two women became friends.

They dreamed of moving into a house with their children.

Maryam H. wanted to learn German and start her own business.

"She wanted to be her own boss," says her friend.

The witness does not want to talk about her friend's love life in court.

That only concerns Maryam H. and the man, she says.

If what the witness says is true, then a lot remained unsaid between the friends.

It is a life full of secrets, hints, unspoken things that she outlines.

It seems as if Maryam H. is trying to keep to herself the little liberties she didn't allow herself to be taken.

Noticeable discomfort

The witness has apparently also learned that it is better not to reveal too much.

She also remains vague about her own private life.

But the presiding judge does not spare her.

If she evades, he repeats his question.

If necessary, he asks a third time, then with a raised voice.

The judges are used to talking about intimate details of other people's lives in court.

The witness, however, is noticeably uncomfortable.

After a lunch break, she bursts out.

She feels very uncomfortable talking about her private life, the interpreter translates her words from Farsi into German.

'It could be dangerous.

I don't want that to happen to me." "They're divorced.

What's the problem?” asks the judge.

“Maryam got divorced too, and they killed her.

That's why I'm scared.

The same thing that happened to Maryam could happen to me.« When asked, she explains that Afghan women are allowed to remarry after a divorce, but that they are not allowed to have extramarital relationships.

She says some in the Afghan community would call Maryam H. "a depraved woman" and condone the brothers' alleged act.

"You see it as a matter of honour," she says, adding: "But it's not a matter of honour."

"She loved her brothers very much"

Maryam H. was "a good woman".

In the presence of men, she always wore a headscarf and loose clothing.

Her brothers visited her at home every weekend.

She also only showed herself to them in a veiled manner.

Maryam H. was religious and visited the mosque.

Faith and her family were very important to her.

"She loved her brothers very much," says the witness.

She has always said only good things about her.

The witness will repeat it several times on both days of her questioning.

Mahdi H. is "a fine boy" and Yousuf H. "a fine man", very thoughtful, very hardworking.

The fact that the brothers were in her apartment every weekend didn't bother Maryam H..

She liked being with them.

She cooked for her brothers and did their laundry.

Unlike Maryam and younger brother Mahdi, Yousuf H. did not live in Berlin until his imprisonment, but in Bavaria.

Maryam H. said that he was married and had a son and that he loved his wife and child very much.

The witness learns from the judge that Yousuf H. is by no means married, but rather had a relationship with a married woman and is the father of an illegitimate child.

She shows no reaction.

The father broke up with her

The judge asks her to talk about Maryam H's parents.

She doesn't know much, says the witness.

Only that the parents live near Kabul.

The father arranged his daughter's marriage while he was still in Afghanistan.

He chose a significantly older husband for Maryam H.

Maryam H. said that she did not want to marry him.

When her father found out about it, he punched her in the face.

After the wedding, her husband beat her.

In Germany, Maryam H. got divorced.

The father broke up with her.

"You're not my daughter anymore," he told her.

"Your mother wasn't like that." Maryam H. continued to be in contact with her.

Maryam H's ex-husband did not accept the separation.

He threatened her, followed her.

"She was very afraid of him," says her friend.

"She was very afraid that he would take her to Afghanistan or kill her."

The witness only reported that Maryam H. was also afraid of her brothers when asked.

A woman blackmailed Maryam H. with a cell phone video.

She had filmed Maryam dancing in a club for the first time.

Only women were present.

Maryam had taken off her headscarf and danced.

The woman threatened to post the video on Facebook and show it to her brothers.

Maryam H. paid the woman 1,500 euros.

"She feared her brothers would harm her."

The presiding judge asks: "Maryam was worried that her brothers would kill her if they found out about the video?" The witness replies: "She said they would kill her if they found out." And adds : »She only said that once.

Other than that she only said good things about her brothers.”

Threatened with a knife

The girlfriend only claims to have found out that her brothers knew about her sister's new relationship or at least suspected it after Maryam H's disappearance in July 2021.

The brothers are said to have threatened their friend with a knife when they caught him in Maryam H.'s room.

On the eve of her disappearance, Maryam H. called her friend.

She was really looking forward to the next day.

The next morning she wanted to visit an apartment with Yousuf H.

Afterwards, Maryam wanted to call her friend.

But Maryam never called again.

Her body was found three weeks later.

Her friend bursts into tears in court.

“Maryam has done so much for her family.

But no one from the family came to her funeral.

Nobody was there."

Source: spiegel

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