The Regional Court sentenced the Iraqi Kurd Zairk A. (39) to life imprisonment. Together with his brother Sharhat (31), he had suffocated his own sister Sozan A. (22) with a blanket in her sleep in October 2017, faking her suicide.
Sozan A. had separated from her husband and married someone else. Judge Herbert Pröls (60): “In the eyes of the family this was a disgrace. The brothers were supposed to restore the so-called family honour with the murder.”
The new husband had contacted the police after he had no more face-to-face contact with his wife and had been stalled by the brothers. The police finally opened the flat and found the 22-year-old’s body. The young woman was murdered only four days after her second wedding.
The judge in the verdict: “The accused denied her the right to live according to her own ideas”. The accused did not make any statements in court. But witness statements, driving logs, mobile phone data and DNA traces heavily incriminated Zairk.
The two brothers were not caught until 2021, the verdict against the younger brother is still pending, he was just sentenced to 7 years in prison in Italy for drug trafficking.