Afghan teen sentenced for stabbing ex-girlfriend
September 8, 2018
A regional court in the German city of Darmstadt on Friday sentenced an Afghan asylum seeker to seven years in prison for a stabbing attack on his 17-year-old ex-girlfriend.
The court found the Afghan national guilty of seriously injuring his ex-girlfriend with a knife shortly before Christmas last year.
The girl suffered 17 stab wounds to the back, neck and chest, said presiding judge Marc Euler. An emergency operation saved her life.
The young man came to Germany as a refugee in 2015 claiming to be a minor. It was determined that he is about 17 years old and he was sentenced according to juvenile law.
'Extremely brutal' crime
Euler said the motive for the "extremely brutal" crime was that the young man had been unable to cope with the fact that his girlfriend had ended their relationship.
The two teenagers had met for a final conversation in a remote street when the incident took place.
Euler said the victim continues to suffer both physically and psychologically from the attack, saying she experiences pain while breathing and is afraid to be outside.
Read more: Domestic violence affects over 100,000 women in Germany
The court considered the fact that the young man had confessed to the crime at the police station in the evening the same day, had not been previously convicted and had acted "spontaneously." He was also under the influence of alcohol at the time.
The public prosecutor's office had demanded seven years and six months in juvenile detention, while the defense pleaded for four years.
The ruling comes after a court in southern Germany on Monday sentenced an asylum seeker, believed to be from Afghanistan, to eight years and six months in prison for stabbing his 15-year-old ex-girlfriend to death in the town of Kandel just after Christmas last year. Prosecutors have filed an appeal against the sentence.
In another case currently before a court in the northern city of Flensburg, a young man from Afghanistan is on trial for stabbing his 17-year-old ex-girlfriend to death. An expert has testified that he was at least 21 years old at the time the crime took place.
law/bw (dpa, epd)