Man apologizes in Lucerne court for killing his wife
Published: Tuesday, Feb 6th 2024, 15:20
العودة إلى البث المباشر
A man accused of murder apologized for killing his wife before the Lucerne Criminal Court on Tuesday. He had not intended to do so and regretted it very much, he said in his last words.
The trial was then declared over by the judges of the criminal court and the verdict will be announced in writing at a later date. The public prosecutor had demanded a life sentence and a 15-year ban from the country.
He cited greed as one of the motives for the murder. The divorce announced by the victim would have led to consequences under matrimonial property law, which the accused could not accept. Jealousy also played a role, as his wife, like him, had been having an affair for some time. The lawyer described killing a person out of pure fear of loss as "extreme selfishness".
The public prosecutor denied the accused's accusation that the victim had provoked and assaulted him. On the day of the attack, the woman had no motive to pick a fight with her husband. She had been in the process of moving out of the marital home in Emmenbrücke. The traces of injury left by the perpetrator also pointed to the victim's attempts to defend herself.
In his plea, the private plaintiffs' lawyer, who represented the couple's three adult children, demanded damages of CHF 173,000, compensation of CHF 29,500 and satisfaction of CHF 75,000 per child. The death of their mother meant an irreparable cut in their lives and had a lasting and massive impact on their quality of life.
Manslaughter instead of murder
The defendant's lawyer requested that he not be expelled from the country and pleaded for manslaughter instead of murder. A prison sentence of between one and ten years was envisaged for this. According to the defense lawyer, the offence of murder was not fulfilled. An overall assessment of the internal and external circumstances of the accused had to be made.
Firstly, her client had not planned the crime. This is shown by the fact that he had not taken any precautions. He had neither organized a murder weapon nor worked out a strategy for after the killing. Instead, he carried out the crime when the couple's youngest son was in the apartment, which meant that there was a witness. He then allowed himself to be taken away by the police without resistance.
Her client had already been under psychological stress for some time at the time of the crime and had suffered from depression and panic attacks. The arguments between the couple and the provocations on the day of the crime had put him under further pressure. The trigger on that day was an emotional short-circuit reaction. He was only partially able to control his behavior.
Money stolen from woman's accounts
The homicide took place in Emmenbrücke in June 2020. The accused is accused of first beating his wife with blunt force, then strangling her and then stabbing her several times in the neck. He then allegedly stabbed her eight more times in the chest. The son, who had been in the apartment at the time of the attack, called the emergency services.
In addition to murder, the 53-year-old man from Serbia is accused of multiple embezzlement. Between April and May, he allegedly withdrew a sum of CHF 29,500 from his wife's accounts without her consent. He was later able to withdraw a further 30,000 francs from her accounts due to the ignorance of a bank employee in training. He withdrew CHF 432,000 from his own account and hid it in order to reduce his wife's claim to the assets.
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