A Syrian refugee has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for murdering his wife in front of their four children in the Dutch village of Mierlo.

On Wednesday, the court in ’s-Hertogenbosch found 51-year-old Mohamed B. guilty of stabbing his 35-year-old wife, Ayat, 11 times during a violent argument on March 16 last year. The victim had reportedly wanted a divorce.

The court heard how the victim fled into the street but collapsed and died in the arms of her 12-year-old son. The sentencing judge called the stabbing “a true massacre,” noting that the children tried in vain to protect their mother and were injured in the process. They added that the scene that followed was “unimaginably horrific,” as officers arrived to find the children distraught, bleeding, and covered in their mother’s blood.

The defendant claimed he acted in self-defense, saying his wife had attacked him first, initially by throwing a can at his head before grabbing a knife. However, the court rejected that account, concluding that the children’s “detailed and consistent” testimony proved that it was their father who picked up the knife and attacked.

According to the Dutch Press Agency (ANP), Ayat suffered 11 stab wounds and 18 cuts, including to the head, neck, and back.

The testimony of the children, aged six, seven, nine, and 12, was pivotal in their father’s conviction.

Last month, De Telegraaf reported how prosecutors had requested a 15-year prison term for manslaughter, but the court imposed a sentence three years longer, citing the brutality of the killing and the trauma inflicted on the children. “The defendant left the children beyond help,” the ruling stated.

The Syrian national was found shortly after the attack in an alley behind the family home with a packed suitcase and his phone in hand. He told the court he remembered little after the argument began, insisting, “I was terrified of her. I swear to God Almighty, I didn’t want to kill her. I wanted to leave her.”

Prosecutors accused him of “theatrical behavior” and said he killed Ayat because she wanted a divorce and independence. “Ayat was stabbed to death because she wanted control over her own life,” the prosecutor said, describing the murder as “domestic violence out of a compulsion to control.”

Mohamed arrived in the Netherlands from Syria back in 2021. His wife and children joined him in November 2023.