On Tuesday, September 16th, a 37-year-old Afghan man was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Darmstadt Regional Court for murdering his ex-wife in Bensheim, Hesse, in December 2024.
The court found that he killed his ex-wife with a knife out of base motives, and the attack was witnessed by their daughter—now aged 11—who testified during the trial.
According to HR, the girl described hearing cracking bones and screams in the kitchen, and saw her father stabbing her mother in the neck and attempting to tear her head off.
Wahid H. denied the attack for months but confessed shortly before the verdict, which mitigated his sentence slightly. The court did not find any particularly severe guilt in the case.
Testimonies revealed a long history of domestic violence. Wahid H. had physically abused his wife with blows and kicks. The couple married in Afghanistan in 2012 and moved to Germany in 2021.
The judge described him as an “archaic man” with a “proprietary claim over his wife,” who sought to emancipate herself. She had eventually divorced him against his will and moved with their children into a separate apartment.
Prosecutors labelled the killing a femicide. The judge noted the father’s lack of empathy toward his children, stating
At no point did you say anything to your children or show any empathy toward your daughter.
Widespread migrant knife crime, including from Afghans, has prompted Germany to revise its laws on possessing knives in public places.
