Her brothers allegedly murdered Maryam H. (34) because she wanted to live freely. Now it is known what one of the men suspected of the crime told the investigators when questioned by the police – and how the other is supposed to have lured the mother of two to him on the day of her disappearance…
The inconceivable case: Maryam H. became acquainted with her husband in Afghanistan. During police interrogation, her brother Sayed H. (25) stated that the two were not in love.
As the newspaper B.Z. learned from police circles, the accused told the officer how an Afghan marriage works: “The thing with women is different in Afghanistan than it is in Germany. A woman is like a co-worker, she does the housework, cooks and takes care of the children.”
The family arrived in Germany in 2013. Maryam H., her husband and the children (the son now 13, the daughter 9) moved into an asylum seekers’ home in Berlin.
Her brother Seyed H. (22) also found accommodation in the capital, only Sayed H. had to stay in Bavaria.
Sayed H. also tried to move to Berlin. However, the authorities sent the unemployed salesman back to the state of Bavaria. In 2015, he got depressed (“I can’t work”), his asylum application was rejected in 2016. After a suicide attempt, he underwent psychological treatment – presumably the reason why he was not deported.
His younger brother Seyed was sentenced to a fine of 600 euros for assault in February 2020. He has no profession, lives on social welfare (420 euros/month).In 2017, Maryam divorced her husband according to German law, but he refused to annul the marriage according to Islamic law.
When her brothers learned that Maryam had fled from her husband in 2019, they continued to monitor her sister. According to B.Z. information, they demanded that Maryam wear a headscarf, forbade her to go outside alone.
“She was scared to death,” says an acquaintance. Because her ex had also threatened her with death. A restraining order was issued against him.
Her brother Sayed came from Bavaria almost every weekend and lived in Hellersdorf asylum seekers’ accommodation near Maryam.
In February, the mother of two suffered a laceration to her eye, claimed she was beaten by a resident. Another acquaintance: “She often had haematomas on her arms and neck, always said she had bumped herself.”
She kept in touch with her social worker, an Iranian. They became a couple and wanted to marry. This may have been her death sentence! The arrest warrant states that the two acted “out of a violated sense of honour”.
Investigators are certain that Seyed lured her to his home on July 13. He had allegedly found a flat for Maryam and the children. What exactly happened then is still unclear. On the same day, Maryam H. was reported missing.
“The autopsy showed that the young woman was killed very brutally by attacks on her head and neck,” says justice spokesman Martin Steltner (60) to B.Z.
Images from surveillance cameras at Südkreuz station show the brothers dragging a suitcase onto the train. They were going to Sayed’s hometown Holzkirchen (Bavaria). Nearby, the buried body was found at the end of July.
Investigators found how the alleged perpetrators stuffed the body into the suitcase to transport it to Bavaria and bury it in a hole in the ground.
A policewoman (1.70 metres tall, weighing 60 kilograms) put herself in an identical piece of luggage for this. The suitcase (model “Wheel Lock Lit”), which the brothers had bought for 60 euros at Primark at Alexanderplatz before the crime, could actually be closed with a body in it!
The brothers suspected of the crime were arrested. Defence lawyer Mirko Röder (56) defends Seyed H.: “The accusations are pronounced investigator’s lyricism, a pre-judgement is taking place here in the election campaign,” he says. His client – like his brother – remains silent on the charges.
https://www.bz-berlin.de/berlin/afghanen-toeten-schwester-eine-frau-ist-wie-eine-mitarbeiterin