On Thursday, February 16, a German court sentenced two Afghan brothers to life in prison for the murder of their sister because they disapproved of her’modern’ lifestyle, gistpeople reports
READ ALSO: Baby girl drowned while playing in the bath with her two older twin brothers
Maryam H., a 34-year-old mother of two, was discovered buried on a hill in Germany’s southern Bavaria region several weeks after going missing from her Berlin home in July 2021.
Her brothers, Yousuf and Mahdi H., were seen boarding a train from Berlin to Bavaria around the time Maryam H. went missing, dragging a heavy suitcase believed to contain her body. She was discovered with tape covering her hands, feet, mouth, and nose, and experts told a Berlin district court that she had been choked to death before having her throat slit.
Judge Thomas Gross said the two men, both in their 20s, had killed the woman ‘because she was increasingly pulling away from the controlling influence of the brothers’. ‘They denied her this right, this right to life,’ Gross said after the verdict was read.
Prosecutors claimed the brothers objected to their sister’s “partially modern lifestyle” and attempted to prevent her from starting a new relationship after she divorced her Afghan husband.
The defense argued that Yousuf accidentally killed his sister during an argument and that Mahdi H. should be released.
However, the court dismissed the claims, and both brothers were found guilty after 42 days of negotiations and the questioning of 52 witnesses.
Maryam fled Afghanistan for Germany in 2013 and was granted asylum along with her then-husband, Saeed Habib H., and their two young children.
Their marriage fell apart four years later, and Maryam divorced her husband under German law.
The news of her divorce enraged her brothers, who began exercising controlling behavior toward Maryam, restricting her freedom and forcing her to follow strict Islamic laws such as wearing a headscarf and only going out in public when accompanied by a familial male escort.
Maryam’s ex-husband also threatened her with death, prompting a restraining order to be issued against him.
Maryam’s children, now 15 and 11, are living with their father following the death of their mother.
