Germany sentences Syrian refugee to life imprisonment for killing wife

A German court in Paderborn yesterday sentenced a Syrian refugee to life imprisonment for murdering his wife last year. The man was found guilty of stabbing his wife more than 31 times.

According to Bild, the court heard that the 30-year-old Wahid S. believed that his 20-year-old wife was having an “affair with another man.” In November 2020, he apparently called the police asking them to come to his home, and then called again to tell officers that he had killed his wife in his car.

The judge said: “He acted out of a deeply patriarchal understanding of honour.”

Wahid S. arrived in Germany in 2015 and his wife joined him under a family unification request in 2017.

As of late 2019, Germany had hosted around two million asylum seekers, 41 per cent of whom were Syrians. The Federal Statistical Office added that another 11 per cent were Afghans and 10 per cent were Iraqis.

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