Chills ran up and down the spines of those who witnessed the trial of a married couple in room 106 of the Vienna Regional Court on Thursday. The list of accusations against the 36-year-old husband is long: having come to Vienna from Syria in 2015, the welfare recipient beat his wife continuously from 2016 onwards. “The accused also abused three of the children, partly with a stick or his belt,” the prosecutor elaborates. The allegations concerning the couple’s daughter, who is only 13 years old, are heinous.
From April 2021 onwards, the father allegedly raped his child many times: “Predominantly at night around 4 a.m., he would sneak into her room and lie down behind her,” the prosecutor says. According to the indictment, he covered the girl’s mouth during the horrors. “If you tell, I will kill you and the family,” he allegedly threatened the child.
During questioning by Judge Stefan Huber, the accused responded aggressively. During a toilet break, accompanied by the police, he hit a fire extinguisher container, which shattered. Scolding loudly, he pointed his index finger at his wife again and again: “It’s a plot! She made the children say all this.” In adversarial hearings, the children gave detailed accounts of the atrocities.
But only the beatings were admitted by the man: “Why shouldn’t I beat my children when they do something wrong?” he said with a shrug. Even defence lawyer Walter Wendt admitted: “It is a family tragedy of inconceivable proportions.”
In April 2022, the girl confided in her mother. But she did not go straight to the police, but wanted to collect evidence first. Her waiting until June 2022 is the reason for the charge as a complicit offender: “You have to put yourself in the woman’s shoes,” explains defence lawyer Andreas Reichenbach, “she was massively threatened and abused for years. She was afraid for her life and the lives of her children.” – The trial is adjourned.