Germany: Life sentence for ordering honor murder

Germany: Life sentence for ordering honor murder

This is the first time, I think, in which German authorities prosecuted somebody for ordering an honor murder, and not only for carrying it out. This is an important step in fighting such murders. The son, the actual murderer, will be out of jail before he's 30, which is probably why he was the one chosen to do it.

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A German court imprisoned a Kurdish man, 50, for life on Tuesday for ordering the "honour killing" of his own daughter after being told she had lost her virginity. A son and an Azeri friend lured the 20-year-old woman, Gulsum, to a lonely country road near the Dutch border, throttled her with a rope and clubbed her to death, inflicting horrific injuries to her face.


German authorities have vowed to stamp out the archaic custom among some Kurds, Turks and other ethnic groups of families murdering their own members who offend "family honour" through sexual relationships. Social workers had earlier tried to protect Gulsum.



The state court at Kleve sentenced Gulsum's brother, 20, to nine and a half years in youth prison, just short of the maximum youth sentence of 10 years. He and the victim were two out of three triplets. He had confessed to the killing after he was arrested.


His helper, 37, was jailed for seven and a half years.


Judges said they were convinced the only motive to murder Gulsum had been that she was no longer a virgin and had secretly undergone an abortion.


They said they were also convinced the father of 10, who denied the murder, had ordered his son to kill the sister.



(more)

Source: Earth Times

See also: Germany: Brother confesses to honor killing

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