Germany: Two Brothers Get Life for Honor Killing of Their Sister

In December 2021, we reported on the arrests of two Afghan brothers who were charged with murdering their sister because they disapproved of her Western lifestyle. The murder was committed in Berlin, after which, the brothers cut up her body, put it in a trunk, and transported it to Bavaria. The details can be read here.

Today, they were sentenced to life imprisonment. The below article from the Berliner Morgenpost is translated by Fousesquawk.

https://www.morgenpost.de/vermischtes/article237656307/Urteil-erwartet-im-Prozess-nach-gewaltsamem-Tod-einer-Afghanin.html

Afghan woman murdered: Brothers sentenced to life imprisonment

Caption: The two defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment for murder.

Because she wanted a free life: Berlin State Court saw it as proven that Maryam was murdered by her brothers.

Posted 2-16-23 at 17:53

by Julian Wuerzer

Berlin. Maryam H. wanted to be free. She wanted to determine her life for herself. She wanted to marry the man she loved. But in the end, she had to die in a gruesome way. Because her life plan did not correspond to the archaic thinking of her brothers. A so-called honor killing. More than a year-and-a-half after the death of the 34-year-old Afghan woman, both of her brothers, Yousef H. and Mahdi H. were sentenced on Thursday by the Berlin State Court.

As the presiding judge, Thomas Gross, announced the sentence, both brothers, ages 28 and 24, stood in their glass cubicles and stared at the floor. Both brothers, Gross read, were sentenced for murder out of base motives. The punishment announced: Life imprisonment. The faces of the men showed no emotion.

Maryam H. wanted to lead a self-determined life

Maryam H., as a 16-year-old girl in Afghanistan, was forced into a marriage with a "significantly" older man, according to the judge after the announcement of the sentence. In 2015, she came with him to Germany to start a new life. However, her brothers had other plans. They forced their "archaic" world view of the Afghan extended family upon her, surveilled her, and led, according to Gross, a "strict regiment".