Honour killing stories to 2000

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Rinda D.
Born: 1960
shot dead: 23 July 1981
Residence: Bietigheim-Bissingen
Origin: Turkey
Children: 1 newborn son
Perpetrator: her brother Isa D. (15 years old at the time of the crime)

On July 23, 1981, 15-year-old Isa shoots his sister six times while she is lying in the maternity ward of Bietigheim Hospital. She drags herself to the corridor, collapses there and dies. A few hours later, the perpetrator is arrested.

read Rinda's story
Esther
Born:
shot dead: 9 June 1982
Residence: Rheinau (Baden)
Origin: Victim: Germany; Perpetrator: unclear, asylum seeker
Children: unclear
Perpetrator: her ex-boyfriend (52 years old at the time of the crime)

In 2015, a journalist is investigating murders in the Ortenau district on the border with France. His list includes a single sentence about the year 1982: "On June 9, a 52-year-old asylum seeker in Rheinau shot his former German partner with a gun out of jealousy."

read Esther's story
Perihan Yakupoglu
Born: 1959
Strangled and beaten to death: 22 March 1983
Residence: Andernach (Rhineland-Palatinate)
Origin: Turkey
Children: none
Perpetrator: her father Abdullah Yakupoglu (age 51 at the time of the crime)

Abdullah Yakupoglu comes to Germany in 1964 as a laborer and five years later brings his wife and three small daughters. The girls are trained as hairdressers. The youngest is devoted to her father and marries a Turk he has chosen.

read Perihan's story
Malika
born: 1973
stabbed to death: 4 August 1985
Residence: Frankfurt
Origin: Morocco
Children: none, she was still a child herself
Perpetrator: her father Abdeslam Ben Ayade, 41 years old at the time of the crime

Malika's father Abdeslam Ben Ayade came to Frankfurt from Morocco in 1971. Nine years later, the Berber carpet weaver brings his wife Mimouna and their then six-year-old daughter. The father soon starts drinking and kicks his wife and daughter out of the house.

read Malika's story
Sashu
born:
stabbed to death: August 11, 1985
Residence: Kassel
Origin: Eritrea
Children: Sashu and her husband had several children from both of their first marriages, plus two children together: a boy and a girl 3 days old
Perpetrator: her husband Hangambes Tesfamicael (44 years old at the time of the crime)

Sashu and Hangambes Tesfamicael live in a small Eritrean colony in Kassel. Both have children from their first marriage, plus a son together. There are huge marital problems. Tesfamicael accuses his wife of prostitution, says a newspaper, which probably means he calls her a whore.

read Sashu's story
Ali
born: ?
stabbed to death: January 1986
Residence: Amstetten (near Stuttgart)
Origin: Turkey
Children: ?
Perpetrator: his brother-in-law (15 years old at the time of the crime)

Ali is married to Filiz and wants a divorce. Her family sees her honor tarnished by this. She orders Filiz's 15-year-old brother to kill Ali. In a fully occupied four-person room at Geislingen District Hospital, the young man stabs his brother-in-law.

read Ali's story
Zuhal
Born: 1969
shot dead: 20 or 29 January 1986
Residence: Heidenheim/Ellwangen (Baden-Württemberg)
Origin: Turkey
Children: none
Perpetrator: her brother Kemal (14 years old at the time of the crime)

It is West Germany in the mid-1980s. Nobody is talking about honor killings. This is a particularly serious case, but it is difficult to reconstruct the details today. In January 1986, 14-year-old Kemal shoots his 17-year-old sister to death on the street in Heidenheim.

read Zuhal's story
Cavus Ünlü
Born: 1960
Killed: December 15, 1986
Residence: Munich
Origin: Turkey
Children: probably none
Perpetrators: Osman Ü. (37 years old at the time of the crime), Turan Ü. (30 years old), Senol Ü. (29 years old), cousins

In December 1986, two brothers killed a 26-year-old Turkish construction worker/polisher in the apartment of one of them in Munich. They hit him on the head with an iron bar, put a plastic bag over it and strangled him.

read Cavus' story/a>
Kübra Yilmaz
born 1949
stabbed to death: 11 July 1988
Residence: Berlin-Wilmersdorf
Origin: Turkey
Children: 2 sons
Perpetrator: Abdulbahri C. (34 years old at the time of the crime)

Abdulbahri has lived in Germany since 1981. On July 11, 1988, he stabs the widow Kübra Yilmaz to death. One of her two sons finds the body. The murder initially remains unsolved. In 2002, Abdulbahri goes to prison for two and a half years.

read Kübra's story
Ewa and Magdalena
Born: 1962, 1966
shot dead: May 5, 1992
Residence: Berlin
Origin: Victim: Poland; Perpetrator: Turkey
Children: at least 1 daughter (8 years old at the time of the crime)
Perpetrator: her partner Ali K. ( 27 years old)

Ewa is with Ali. She has a daughter, whether he is the father is unclear. On May 5, 1992, Ali shoots her in her apartment. The motive is that she had contact with other men. Her friend (or relative) Magdalena enters the room. He also shoots her to escape.

read Ewa's story
Martina Zaaiter
born 1968
stabbed to death: 24 May 1992
Residence: Essen
Origin: perpetrator: Lebanon; victim: Germany
Children: 1 daughter (3 years old at the time of the crime), 1 son (1 year old)
Perpetrator: her husband Taleb Hussein Zaaiter (age 25)

In April 1988, Martina and Taleb married. They have a daughter and a son. There is a crisis since last 1992, Taleb mistreats his wife. Martina wants to divorce him after four years of marriage. Taleb does not want to accept this. An argument ensues in the shared apartment.

read Martina's story
Kevser Kurt
Born: 1963
murdered: August 9, 1992
Residence: Berlin
Origin: Turkey
Children: 1 son (age 12 at the time of the crime), 1 girl (age 9)
Perpetrator: So far there has been no trial. The then husband was questioned, but there was no strong suspicion against him.

In March 2007, Riza Kurt, a Turk, was questioned for several hours by Berlin police. He had reported his wife Kevser missing in August 1992 (i.e. 15 years ago). The homicide department had launched an investigation, but had not even found the body.

read Kevser's story
Leyla
born 1975
murdered: 8/9 February 1993
Residence: Albbruck / Waldshut (Baden-Württemberg)
Origin: Turkey
Children:
Perpetrator: her father Sami (52 years old at the time of the crime)

Leyla was born in Germany and engaged at the age of 14 to a Turk in Turkey whom she does not know. She runs away, but is brought back by the police. She is then married off by her family in 1991.

read Leyla's story
Waffa
born 1976
Strangled: August 29, 1993
Residence: Bonn
Origin: Syria
Children: a then one year old child who lived in a children's home
Perpetrator: her father Ali (probably together with two cousins). He was granted German citizenship before the murder was discovered.

In 1993, Waffa's father and two of his cousins strangled the 17-year-old because of her allegedly inappropriate lifestyle. To cover up the girl's disappearance, the father writes a letter to the youth welfare office in Bonn saying that his daughter has moved.

read Waffa's story
Hatun Sönmez
born 1972
stabbed to death: 6 September 1993
Residence: Dortmund
Origin: Turkey
Children: probably none
Perpetrator: her brother (17 years old at the time of the crime)

Hatun attends the Anne Frank school in Dortmund. It is possible that at the time of the crime she had already completed her high school diploma, wants to study or is already studying. She is in love with Erdal.

read Hatun's story
Kirstin Schwarz
Born: 1977
Strangled and stabbed: January 12, 1994
Residence: Berlin
Origin: Victim: Canada / Germany; Perpetrator: Turkey
Children: none
Perpetrator: her Turkish ex-boyfriend Aydin Yahsi, age 25 at the time of the crime.

Kristin was adopted from Canada and lives with her new parents in Berlin. When she is 16, she falls in love with Aydin, who is eight years older. After no more than a year, he starts beating her. He allegedly beat his ex-wife as well.

read Kirstin's story
Hers K.
Born: 1971
stabbed to death: July 1995
Residence: Hannover
Origin: Iraq / Kurds / Yazidis
Children: unclear, probably none
Perpetrators: Hassan, Ibrahim, Alaadin (36, 39, 42 years old at the time of the crime)

In 1994, Hers comes to Germany as a 23-year-old asylum seeker from Iraq. His 17-year-old sister is married off to the Iraqi Yazidi Hassan in 1995 as a second wife in Hanover. So her brother brings her to Hanover as an import bride from Iraq.

read Hers' story
Hatice M.
born: 1967
killed: February 1996
Location: Trappenkamp (near Kiel)
Origin: Turkey
Children: victim: she was pregnant; perpetrator 3 (including the victim)
Perpetrator: her father Ramazan M. (at the time of the crime 54 years old)

You can read this murder as an honor killing - or as a murder to cover up abuse. The story: At age 17, Hatice's mother Ayse is forcibly married off in Turkey to Ramazan (presumably a cousin), who is 7 years older.

read Hatice's story
Aischa
born 1974
stabbed to death: 20 June 1996
Residence: Gengenbach near Offenburg
Origin: Turkey
Children: unclear
Perpetrator: her husband (25 years old at the time of the crime)

Aischa reportedly fell in love with her future husband during a vacation in Turkey in 1991 and married him three years later, also in Turkey. Since she was 17 and 20 years old respectively at that time, an arranged marriage within the family is obvious.

read Aischa's story
Majidi M.
born 1973
stabbed to death: July 1996
Residence: Hamburg
Origin: Afghanistan
Children:
Perpetrator: her husband Omar R. (39 years old at the time of the crime)

Omar marries Majidi, who is 17 years younger. She divorces him. Presumably there are children from the marriage, but nothing is known. Omar does not want to accept the divorce. He stabs Majidi to death at her sister's wedding at the Bramfeld Music Hall in July 1996.

read Majidi's story
Katrin Reemtsma
born 1958
stabbed to death: 9 June 1997
Residence: Berlin
Origin: Victim: Germany; Perpetrator: Yugoslavia / Roma
Children: 2 (3 and 5 years old at the time of the crime)
Perpetrator: her partner Asmet S. (40 years old at the time of the crime)

This is an honor killing from 1997. At that time it was almost impossible to talk about honor killings in Germany. The case is therefore quite unknown, although the victim comes from a large German industrialist family.

read Katrin's story
Sengül Obinger
Born: 1973
Attempted murder: 7 August 1997
Residence: Nuremberg
Origin: Turkey
Children: 1 daughter (4 years old at the time of the crime)
Perpetrator: Rasit D., her husband (26 years old)

Sengül was born in Nuremberg. Even before she turned 18, her parents sought a husband for her in Turkey. Rasit, a distant relative, comes to Germany and abuses his wife for five years. A daughter is born of the marriage.

read Sengül's story
Maha
born: 1979
Doused in gasoline and set on fire: June 13, 1997
Residence: Dormagen/Neuss
Origin: Lebanon
Children: none at the time of the crime
Perpetrator: her father Kassem (43 years old at the time of the crime)

Maha's family came to Germany from Lebanon in 1985. Later, her mother lives with the four (or more) children in Dormagen. The father lives separately in Neuss. But he visits often. He is violent toward the children.

read Maha's story
Kahwla Mahmoud Al Sammouri
Born: 1980
Murdered: October 15/16, 1997
Residence: Viernheim/Hesse
Origin: Jordan
Children: none, she was only 17 years old
Perpetrators: her father Mahmoud al S. (49 years old at the time of the crime), her brothers Kahled (30 years old) and Walid (28 years old)

Khawla is one of nine children in a Jordanian family. She grows up in Germany and is probably well integrated. Her father Mahmoud promises her to a man in Jordan whom she does not know. Khawla, however, falls in love with an Italian named Raffaele.

read Kahwla's story
Saskia Mohs
born 1978
Strangled: 6 August 1998
Residence: Berlin-Lichtenberg
Origin: victim: Germany; perpetrator: Palestinian / Lebanon
Children: she was pregnant
Perpetrator: her boyfriend Fadi al Hudeiri (age 22 at the time of the crime)

Saskia is 20 years old and pregnant. The father of the unborn child is believed to be her boyfriend Fadi, a stateless Palestinian from Lebanon. On August 6, 1998, he strangled her. For this, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison by the Berlin District Court.

read Saskia's story
Cengiz Karki
born: 1980
murdered: 8 August 1998
Residence: Mönchengladbach
Origin: Turkey
Children: none
Perpetrator: Serdar Gedik (17 years old at the time of the crime)

The 17-year-old Serdar lives with his family in Mönchengladbach-Rheydt and attends high school. His 15-year-old sister Serap has a 17-year-old boyfriend, Ali, at first probably secretly. She is scared and hides in a basement.

read Cengiz' story
Mirfat
born 1979
stabbed to death: 21 June 1999
Residence: Berlin-Schöneberg
Origin: Lebanon
Children: probably none
Perpetrator: her 16-year-old brother

In June 1999, a brawl broke out in the Schöneberg apartment of a large Lebanese family. A 16-year-old stabbed his 20-year-old sister to death. The family called the police, who arrested the perpetrator.

read Mirfat's story
Serif Alpsozman
Born: 1976
Killed and run over: 23/24 August 1999
Residence: Bremen
Origin: Turkey
Children: none
Perpetrators: four Kurds: Sehmus M., Ahmet T., Iskender T., Mehmet E.

Men can also become victims of honor killings, and this is when they are involved in the "misconduct" of a woman. In this case, it is 18-year-old Ayse who does not want to marry the man her father has in mind for her.

read Serif's story
Ayse Dizim
Born: 1981
Stabbed: August 23/24, 1999
Residence: Bremen
Origin: Turkey
Children: none
Perpetrators: four Kurds: Sehmus M., Ahmet T., Iskender T., Mehmet E.

In 1999, three Kurds, all PKK members, drowned eighteen-year-old Ayse in the mud on the banks of the Weser River. Against the will of her parents and against the will of the party, she lived with 23-year-old Kurd Serif Alpsozman.

read Ayse's story
Tanja (and her employer)
born: 1977
shot dead: 22 October 1999
Residence: Aschaffenburg
Origin: Victim: Germany; Perpetrator: Albania
Children: probably none
Perpetrator: her boyfriend (25 years old at the time of the crime)

A 25-year-old Albanian shoots his girlfriend to death in Aschaffenburg on October 22, 1999. She is a dental assistant in the practice of Dr. Josef Dölger (age 53). The perpetrator then shoots the dentist and then himself.

read Tanja's story
Nuriye Bayindir
Born: 1976
Attempted murder: December 1999
Place of residence: Ingolstadt
Origin: Turkey
Children: 2
Perpetrator: the cousin of her ex-husband (at the time of the crime 25 years)

Nuriye's case actually does not belong in this archive. Because the shot of the cousin of her ex-husband fell in Turkey. Nevertheless, the story of the young import bride should be told here as an example.

read Nuriye's story
Seher Ö.
born 1972
Strangled: February 17, 2000
Residence: Munich
Origin: Turkey
Children: 4 daughters
Perpetrator: presumably her husband Erkan

At age 15, Seher was married off in Western Anatolia to a cousin in Germany and came to Munich a year later as an import bride. Her husband works as a shopkeeper and mistreats her. The police often have to intervene.

read Seher's story
Maria Bitiki
born: ?
clubbed and stabbed to death: June 2000
Residence: probably Munich
Origin: perpetrator: Macedonia
Children: ?
Perpetrator: her husband Spetim Bitiki, 36 years old at the time of the crime

Nothing is known about this case except that the Munich Public Prosecutor's Office has issued an international arrest warrant for Macedonian Spetim Bitiki. This case does not have to be an honor killing. The brutal procedure could only be an indication of it.

read Maria's story
Fadia H.
born 1979
stabbed to death: 3 November 2000
Residence: Celle/Lüneburg
Origin: Kurdish Yazidi from Syria
Children: none
Perpetrator: her brother Rudank H.(at the time of the crime 20 years old)

In 1994, Fadia came to Celle with her family from Syria. Her parents later have her move to Lüneburg to train as a pharmaceutical technical assistant. There she falls in love with a German who is three years older.

read Fadia's story
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