In February, a missing woman from Bremerhaven was searched for weeks. Finally, the mortal remains of the 32-year-old were discovered on the banks of the Weser. At the start of the trial, her accused husband remained silent on the murder charge.
Bremen – After the discovery of a dismembered corpse, a 46-year-old man has had to answer to the court for the murder of his wife since Friday. At the start of the trial at the Bremen Regional Court, the accused did not want to comment.
The spokesman for the court therefore called the procedure a “puzzle game”. More than 30 negotiation dates until March 2023 are scheduled. “One can say that it is an unusually long process,” said the spokesman. The prosecutor’s files filled several moving boxes.
The remains of the 32-year-old were found near a hotel on the banks of the Weser in Bremerhaven in early March. Previously, emergency services had been looking for the woman for weeks.
The prosecution accuses the Kazakhstan-born German of murder with base motives and faking a crime. After the alleged murder, the man reported his wife to the police as missing. According to the indictment, he is said to have lied during an interrogation: his wife stole 13,000 euros from him and disappeared. The man followed the terse reading of the indictment, outwardly unmoved, with a fixed gaze.
The 46-year-old is said to have strangled his partner in early February, dismembered the body and packed it in plastic sheeting and garbage bags. According to the public prosecutor’s office, he put the bags in a large suitcase, which he transported by car and finally threw into a river – presumably into the Weser, the Geeste or another flowing body of water. Before the crime, the husband is said to have given his wife the sedative diazepam.
A case with “Aktenzeichen XY … unsolved”
As the prosecutor said, the defendant knew that his wife wanted to divorce him. The 32-year-old intended to move to Saint Petersburg, Russia, to live with someone else. They wanted to take their daughter with them. The man feared that the 32-year-old would have sole custody, the prosecutor said.
The woman had a Russian passport, that is, Russian citizenship. The court spokesman could not say whether she also had German citizenship.
The missing persons case caused a nationwide sensation in February. Clues were also sought with the help of the TV program “Aktenzeichen XY … unsolved”. The disappearance of the 32-year-old mother sparked heated discussions, especially on the Russian-speaking part of the Internet. The hearing is scheduled to continue on September 7th. dpa
