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Defendant Yousuf H. in the courtroom: "She always said: These are my brothers, this is my family"
Photo: Olaf Wagner / imago images / Olaf Wagner
"Maryam was in the self-discovery phase," says the witness.
Maryam H. was in the process of finding out "how do I cope with life here without having problems with my family".
Maryam H. came to Berlin from Afghanistan in 2015.
In June 2019, she and her two children moved from one accommodation facility for refugees to another.
From then on, Maryam H. lived in a home in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen.
On July 13, 2021, the 34-year-old disappeared.
Her body was found three weeks later in a hole in the ground in Bavaria.
A corpse in a trolley case?
Since March 2022, her brothers have had to face charges of murder before the 22nd Major Criminal Chamber of the Berlin Regional Court.
According to the indictment, Yousuf H., 27, and Mahdi H., 23, did not agree that their sister was pursuing a "sometimes more modern lifestyle".
There are videos from surveillance cameras at the Berlin-Südkreuz long-distance train station, which show the two brothers boarding an ICE to Munich with an obviously heavy black trolley case on July 13, 2021 at just before 6 p.m.
The investigators are convinced that her sister's body was in the suitcase.
»Very shy and very reserved«
Jana A., 44 years old, was deputy manager of the accommodation where Maryam H. moved with her son and daughter in the summer of 2019.
This Friday, the witness reported in court how Maryam H. had changed over time.
She initially met the young mother as “very shy and very reserved”.
Gradually, Maryam H. became more self-confident.
"She changed.
You could see her temper.
She has started to resist things she didn't want.” The witness attributes this to Maryam H's friendship with another Afghan resident.
This friend was "the complete opposite" of Maryam H.
The woman is "very extroverted" and leads a "really very Western lifestyle."
"Two or three times" Maryam H. is said to have only returned to the accommodation with her girlfriend in the morning, so employees of the security service reported to the home management.
Maryam H. received the clear message that she was not allowed to leave her children alone at night.
The witness says Maryam H. replied that her son was old enough to take care of his sister.
After the admonition, Maryam H. did not stay away again overnight, at least nobody noticed anything like that.
afraid of her brothers
In October 2019 there was a dispute between the women.
Maryam H. reported to the home management that she was afraid of her brothers.
The girlfriend threatened to reveal to Yousuf and Mahdi H. that they had celebrated together, that Maryam H. had drunk beer and taken off her headscarf.
"It was a catastrophe for her," says the witness.
Maryam H. said: "If my brothers find out, they will kill me."
Maryam H. was apparently blackmailed.
She is said to have paid the woman 1,500 euros for her silence.
Her brothers would have found out about her party night anyway, Maryam H. was convinced of that.
"In phases of anxiety, she repeatedly said that she feared she would be killed." In a crisis talk at the end of 2019, she and Maryam H. sought a solution.
Maryam H. reported the woman for extortion.
She didn't want to go to the women's shelter.
That would have meant she would have had to cut ties with her brothers.
"She always said: These are my brothers, this is my family." Apparently she didn't want to break with them, so even an offensive conversation with her brothers was out of the question for her.
"She's not doing so well mentally"
Maryam H. said "that the brothers are already planning something against them".
The presiding judge, Thomas Groß, digs deeper, and later the lawyer for Maryam H's children.
What did Maryam H. mean by that?
What were the brothers planning?
But the witness cannot specify it.
She doesn't know if she even asked at the time.
On July 13, 2021, a Tuesday, Maryam H disappeared. The management of the home found out about it two days later.
Jana A. spoke to Maryam H. for the last time on the Thursday before she disappeared.
"She's not doing so well mentally," Maryam H. said and that she wanted to seek help.
The witness says that she noticed an injury to Maryam H.'s eye.
A man beat her on the street two months earlier, Maryam H. said.
The next day, Friday, or Monday, the witness saw Maryam H. again.
As always, she wore a headscarf.
Nevertheless, the witness noticed that Maryam H. had cut off her hair and dyed it dark.
Only after the disappearance did the witness learn from Maryam H's son that her brothers were said to have been at her accommodation almost every weekend.
They are said to have controlled their sister and put pressure on the nephew.
He is the man in the house and should take care of his mother.
The brothers also wanted their daughter to cover her hair with a headscarf.
Maryam H. did not allow that.
Maryam H's children initially came into the care of the youth welfare office, but today they live with their father.
Maryam H. had divorced the man to whom she had been forced to marry as a teenager in Afghanistan.
The marriage is said to have been fraught with violence.
He is said not to have accepted the separation, threatened her and pursued her.
Jana A., the witness, kept in touch with the children for a while and phoned their son, who is now 14 years old.
He takes good care of his ten-year-old sister.
She says, »Maryam instilled many positive values in her children: appreciation, respect, not hating.«
