Actually, the Afghan asylum seeker appealed after the first verdict in order to get a ” lenient sentence” for the attempted murder of his girlfriend at the time. In the second instance, however, the sentence was raised by the Linz Higher Regional Court – the perpetrator now has to serve 13 years in prison instead of 12.
The asylum seeker and the young girl had an on-off relationship and frequently argued about visitation rights for their common son, who was growing up with a foster family. On October 18, 2020, the couple had another argument in the room of the then 17-year-old Romanian girl in a sheltered accommodation in Linz. In the course of the argument, the asylum seeker from Afghanistan took a knife from the kitchen and stabbed the child’s mother in the neck with it. When she managed to take the knife from him, he got another one and continued the attack. In total, the young woman suffered eight stab wounds, mostly to the neck. In a first interrogation, he stated that his girlfriend had inflicted her injuries herself. At the trial, he then confessed to his crime due to the burden of proof.
The accused said in court on Tuesday that he was “sorry for everything” and “I admit everything”. Nevertheless, he wanted “a bit of a reduced sentence”. The minimum sentence for attempted murder is ten years. The court did not accept the defence lawyer’s argument that his client had let go of the victim when she was defenceless. The Higher Regional Court also took a different view of the fact that a kitchen knife is not a weapon.
In the appeal proceedings on Tuesday, the Linz Higher Regional Court (OLG) raised the sentence for attempted murder from twelve to 13 years. The first sentence had been “a touch too lenient”, the judges’ senate ruled. The aggravating circumstances had not been sufficiently taken into account. The court thus followed the prosecution, according to which an existing conviction as well as the fact that the young man had stabbed the mother of his child should be taken into account more.
https://exxpress.at/afghane-stach-auf-kindesmutter-17-ein-strafe-in-zweiter-instanz-erhoeht/