The trial of the 33-year-old Moroccan, who is alleged to have raped his then partner several times in Soest, started on Thursday morning at Arnsberg District Court.
In his statement, Mokhtar B. denied that he raped his then partner several times in her flat in Soest and in a wooded area near the Soest city park, sometimes with the threat of violence. However, the accused had previously admitted to expert witness Dr Josef Leßmann that he had threatened to smash a beer bottle on the pregnant woman’s head. When Petja Pagel, presiding judge of the 4th Grand Criminal Chamber, asked Mokhtar B. if this was the case, B. unconvincingly accused the experienced and respected psychiatric expert from Warstein of lying.
On Thursday, Mokhtar B. described the fact that violence was apparently a matter of course in the broken relationship without a slightest remorse: his ex allegedly cheated on him. He confronted her about it and she denied the allegations. “Then I threatened her, pulled her hair and hit her.She confessed after I hit and threatened her.”
When asked why, he said: “My honour was wounded. It was hurtful to my honour that someone slept with my wife. I was really angry.” He invoked the rules of Sharia law. Petja Pagel asked him: “Should I interpret that to mean that you think it’s OK to beat your wife?” B. replied: “Of course. Would you accept that if you were in my place? I couldn’t bear it, it’s not allowed among our people.”
Because the Soest woman – probably as a result of one of the alleged rapes on New Year’s Day – is said to have developed abdominal pain and Mokhtar B. was apparently afraid for the unborn child, she went to hospital. There, too, he beat her and only stopped when a doctor intervened. “I was angry, I wanted to keep hitting her,” said the accused. At the same time, Mokhtar B. apparently did not take the rules of Islam too seriously himself: during the offences on New Year’s Day, he was apparently high on drugs.
“I consumed alcohol, cocaine, hashish and pills at a New Year’s Eve party – but the offences of beating her have nothing to do with that.” Nicole Kuni, the public prosecutor, said of the torment that the Soest woman is said to have suffered: “She feared for her life.” The trial will continue on Thursday, August 15.
Soester Vergewaltigungs-Prozess: Mokhtar B. will sich mit Scharia schützen (soester-anzeiger.de)