In four years of pre-trial detention, Mohamed A. ( aged 28) has already grown a long beard – since Thursday, he has been on trial for the third time for the murder of a prostitute.
Senior public prosecutor Dirk Stickeln (58) is convinced: the Syrian asylum seeker had sex with Natasha D. (†35) on the Hamm prostitutes’ patch on September 12, 2018. “Then he grabbed her from behind and strangled her. He intended to cause the death of the victim,” said the prosecution representative.
On April 15, 2019, Mohamed A. was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for manslaughter. The Federal Supreme Court (BGH) overturned the sentence.
In the second trial, the accused then was sentenced to life – for murder! But this sentence was also overturned by the senior judges in Karlsruhe!
The reasoning is complicated. The Syrian probably didn’t have the money to pay for sex with Natasha. Did he kill her so that she could not report him? Or did he do it to prevent passers-by in the vicinity from not noticing the crime? According to the Federal Supreme Court, these questions have not been sufficiently clarified.
This motivation of the killer must now be clarified by the court headed by judge Matthias Röcken. All witnesses will be heard again. In the end, however, the life sentence may be confirmed.
Mohamed A. remained silent at the start of the trial. His lawyer Jerritt Schöll (41) announced, however, that there would be a statement in the further course of the trial. In the first trial, he did not want to remember what happened after the sex in the bushes at the airport.
The man, who studied economics in Syria and fled to Germany in 2016, said at the time: “I woke up at home and a voice told me I had a big problem with a dead woman.”
Natasha D. left behind a young daughter (now 7). The sister of the single Bulgarian, Iliana Z. (38), told the newspaper BILD: “She worked as a prostitute because she wanted to give her daughter a better life. Later she wanted to study foreign languages.”
The Dortmund Regional Court has scheduled five trial dates this time. A verdict could be reached on November 17.