Zurich District Court sentences 51-year-old man for murder of wife
Published: Friday, Jul 5th 2024, 16:30
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On Friday, the Zurich District Court found a 51-year-old man guilty of the murder of his 40-year-old wife. He was sentenced to 19 years' imprisonment. The verdict is not yet final.
The court awarded the two joint children as well as the victim's sister and mother compensation payments totaling around CHF 280,000. In addition, the accused must pay the costs that the surviving dependants have incurred or will incur as a result of the crime. He will have to pay further large sums as a result of the proceedings.
The verdict can be appealed to the High Court of the Canton of Zurich. The defense lawyer had pleaded for a seven-year prison sentence for manslaughter. However, the court largely followed the prosecutor's motions, who had demanded a life sentence for murder.
According to the court, the Swiss national with Turkish roots, who had no criminal record until the crime, remains in custody. He is a flight risk; the IT specialist has good connections to Germany, where he lived for years before coming to Switzerland in 2005 for professional reasons.
Locked into a fixed idea
The crime took place in the late afternoon of November 23, 2022 in the family apartment in the outlying district of Altstetten in Zurich. The couple's relationship had been deteriorating for several months. The husband had become obsessed with the idea that his Moldovan wife was cheating on him with a neighbor - a completely unfounded suspicion. This led to repeated arguments.
On that Wednesday afternoon, the defendant brought up the subject again. The woman then declared that she had had enough, that she no longer wanted him. He then realized that she would leave, that he would not be able to maintain the intact family, the judge said in the oral reasons for the verdict. He was unable to accept this.
Crime recorded by camera
It was undisputed that he had caused the death of the 40-year-old and had acted with intent, said the judge. A video camera, which the man himself had installed in the apartment to check on the wife, recorded a large part of what happened in image and sound.
The accused attacked the physically far inferior woman with an armor knife. He did not stop even when she fought back and pleaded for her life. The woman suffered a total of 24 stab wounds and cuts all over her body.
The accused was particularly ruthless and cruel in his actions, said the judge. The recordings made clear the "deliberate, targeted approach" of the accused. He had spoken to his victim during the crime and had also taken short breaks. After the crime, the man lay down next to the bleeding victim.
Hurt yourself
When the children came home from playing outside immediately after the crime, "he reacted quickly", said the judge. He plunged the knife into his own stomach. He told his daughter that it was not his fault, but her mother's.
The dying woman was still able to ask her son to call his aunt - her sister - on her cell phone. She asked her to call the ambulance and police. The man had "stabbed" her and she was dying.
Acting crassly selfish
The accused had not planned the crime, but had acted spontaneously, on a trivial occasion and blatantly selfishly, said the judge. The court denied that he was in an excusable violent emotional state, as the defense lawyer had claimed. "Even morbid jealousy" did not make the emotion excusable. It was clearly murder.
According to the psychiatric expert, the man's culpability was not impaired. According to the court, his culpability was serious. "Genuine remorse is not evident".
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