Honour killing story: Anna (2010)

Anna
Born: 1974
stabbed: 25 March 2010
Residence: Gelnhausen (near Hanau)
Origin: Romania
Children: none
Perpetrator: her divorced husband Viktor (age 40 at the time of the crime)

Viktor and Anna leave their Romanian homeland in 1996 and 1998 as late resettlers and come to Gelnhausen in Hesse. They marry in 1999. He works for a car supplier, she as a waitress.

After ten years, the two divorce. Possibly Viktor is drinking. Anna has a new boyfriend. In court, Viktor was quoted as saying, "If I can't have her, no one should have her."

Six weeks after Anna moves out, Viktor calls her and threatens to kill her. He then drives to her apartment. There he also meets the 39-year-old new boyfriend. He stabs and seriously injures him. He then stabs his wife 15 times. The last of those cuts her carotid artery. Even the court speaks of a brutal execution. He had "literally butchered" his wife. It had looked "like a slaughterhouse".

Neighbors alert the police. In front of a store across the street, Viktor waits calmly for his arrest. The Hanau Regional Court sentences him to life imprisonment in October 2010. Special detail: Anna's family shows their support for the perpetrator in the courtroom with tears and gestures of tenderness. No one can explain this. It is possible that the perpetrator and the victim are from the same clan.

What is an honour killing?

An honour killing is a murder in the name of honour. If a brother murders his sister to restore family honour, it is an honour killing. According to activists, the most common reasons for honour killings are as the victim:

refuses to cooperate in an arranged marriage.
wants to end the relationship.
was the victim of rape or sexual assault.
was accused of having a sexual relationship outside of marriage.

Human rights activists believe that 100,000 honour killings are carried out every year, most of which are not reported to the authorities and some are even deliberately covered up by the authorities themselves, for example because the perpetrators are good friends with local policemen, officials or politicians. Violence against girls and women remains a serious problem in Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Serbia and Turkey.