The Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office has brought charges against a 54-year-old man before a jury of the Berlin Regional Court for attempted cruel murder for base motives, grievous bodily harm and rape.
According to the Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office, Omid R. is accused of having threatened, tied up and gagged his former partner and her daughter, who was ten years old at the time of the crime, with a knife in their flat in the Berlin district of Schöneberg on October 30, 2012. There, he allegedly first raped the woman, then severely abused and mutilated her out of revenge and finally left her tied up in a helpless position in the flat. The woman, who was critically injured, was lucky enough to be able to call for help from one of the windows in the flat. She was saved by intensive medical care, but had to undergo a number of follow-up operations, among other things.
But why is the Berlin public prosecutor’s office only bringing charges now, nine years after the crime? The accused is said to have fled from Berlin to Turkey on the day of the crime and from there to Iran overland. There, he was arrested by Iranian security forces in November 2012 and, after several years of court proceedings, sentenced in September 2018 to prison for the offence of October 30, 2012 in Berlin as well as another offence to the detriment of another woman, among others.
After serving over six years of imprisonment in Iran, he was released in May 2019 and fled Iran to the Netherlands a few months later. He had already been sentenced to prison in the Netherlands in 2003 and 2005 for, among other things, the rape and attempted manslaughter of his then wife.
After his arrest in the Netherlands in March 2020, the accused was held in extradition custody there before he was extradited and transferred to the German justice system in July 2021. Since then, the accused has been in pre-trial detention in Berlin.