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Maryam H. case: Brother Yousuf H. admits the killing of his sister

2022-09-07T15:36:10.915Z


In the trial for the murder of a young Afghan woman, one of the two accused brothers broke his silence. A dispute escalated, he says, when he accidentally killed her.


Enlarge image

Defendant Yousuf H.: “I was so angry that I squeezed my throat”

Photo: Olaf Wagner / imago images / Olaf Wagner

His confession only lasts ten minutes.

Ten minutes in which Yousuf H. tries to explain why he killed his sister Maryam.

He alone, without his younger brother Mahdi.

As Yousuf H. puts it, his sister's death was an accident.

Legally speaking, maybe bodily harm resulting in death, at least not murder.

It's a remarkable admission.

She may reveal more about the 27-year-old Afghan than he would like.

It took Yousuf H. a long time before he broke his silence in court.

Since March, he and his four-year-old brother Mahdi have had to answer before the 22nd Criminal Chamber of the Berlin Regional Court.

According to the indictment, the young men are said to have murdered their sister on July 13, 2021.

Because Maryam H. wanted to lead her life according to her own ideas, did not bow to all her brothers' rules and Mahdi and Yousuf H. found out or suspected that the 34-year-old had a boyfriend.

Yousuf H. remained silent on the allegations for 29 days of negotiations.

In the meantime, the hearing of evidence is coming to an end.

And only now does he tell his version of what happened.

Possibly because he suspects that the trial could end in a murder conviction for him and his brother.

This Wednesday, Yousuf H. has his lawyer Michael Stopp explain on his behalf what is said to have happened on that July day last year.

Even after her death, he reproaches his sister.

She spoke rudely about her parents, knew that her mother and father were in danger in Afghanistan and still refused to transfer them money to flee.

He speaks of her as a selfish, ungrateful woman - in complete contrast to the testimonies of all witnesses who portrayed Maryam H. as a self-sacrificing human being.

Escalation in the hostel room

Yousuf H. paints a picture of himself as a man who takes care of the family.

He wanted to find an apartment for his sister and her children so that they no longer had to live in cramped conditions in refugee accommodation.

He traveled by train to Berlin from Donauwörth in Bavaria, where he lived, to visit an apartment in Berlin-Neukölln with Maryam on July 13.

Before that, they bought a suitcase together because Maryam insisted that he take the things that were still with her to Bavaria.

They then drove to Mahdi H.'s apartment in Berlin-Neukölln with the suitcase.

The 24-year-old lived in a room in a hostel in Berlin-Neukölln.

Mahdi H. left her alone and left the room, perhaps to smoke a cigarette.

In the absence of Mahdi H., a heated argument is said to have broken out between Yousuf and Maryam H.

Yousuf H. was determined to bring his parents to Germany from Afghanistan because he saw them threatened by the Taliban.

He asked Maryam to send them money.

Maryam refused.

She didn't want her mother and father to come to Germany.

The parents didn't take care of them, didn't send them to school as children, she said.

Maryam H. said "bad words", made "disrespectful" and "offensive" statements.

He has told her several times that the Taliban are in danger for her parents.

His sister is said to have "don't care".

"I got so angry."

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He first covered her mouth, grabbed her by the shoulders and finally put her in a headlock.

His forearm was on her neck.

"I got so angry that I squeezed my throat tightly." He felt her body grow heavier.

She went down.

"I thought she passed out," he says, "I didn't want to kill her." But Maryam H. was dead.

In his panic he came up with the idea of ​​bringing his sister to Donauwörth in a suitcase.

In the suitcase that he had bought with her at Berlin's Alexanderplatz that morning.

But he didn't manage to put them in the suitcase, he says.

Then he "cut her throat once with a knife so that she could fit in".

At that moment his brother came into the room.

One brother tries to relieve the other

Mahdi H. asked what had happened.

“He wanted to call a doctor.” This sentence is important to Yousuf H.

He repeats it: "Mahdi wanted to call a doctor." He forbade it and threatened him with the knife.

Then Yousuf H. wrapped his sister's head in tape and put a bag over her face "so I don't have to see it."

He also fixed her hands and feet with tape.

He doesn't give a reason for this.

Since the suitcase was too heavy for just one person, Mahdi H. had to accompany him to Donauwörth.

There are surveillance videos from the Berlin-Südkreuz train station.

They show the brothers carrying a deformed, obviously heavy suitcase on the evening of July 13, 2021 and boarding an ICE towards Munich.

After Maryam H's disappearance, the police obtained an identical suitcase.

A female police officer of Maryam H's stature tried to lie down.

The suitcase closed.

On August 5, 2021, Maryam H's body was found.

She was buried in a grove about 30 kilometers from Donauwörth.

A coroner determined three possible ways of killing.

Death by suffocation, death by strangulation, death by throat cutting.

"I sincerely regret my anger, which led to the injury and eventual death of my sister," Yousuf H. lets his lawyer say at the end of his statement.

"I'm very sorry about what happened."

He does not allow questions from the court, the prosecutor, the psychiatric experts and the lawyer for Maryam H's children.

For example, asking if it's true that he threatened her daughter and son that he would kill her mother if he found out she had a boyfriend.

That's what the kids said.

They also said that Yousuf H. and Mahdi H. regularly beat their mother, humiliated her and constantly tried to control her.

Maryam H. never resisted the violence.

She loved her brothers.

Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2022-09-07

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