An Afghan man who stabbed his former girlfriend in the neck with a pencil before trying to strangle her in a Magdeburg Burger King has been handed a seven-year prison sentence after prosecutors succeeded in overturning a much lighter punishment.
Farid A., 23, was convicted of attempted murder after a second trial found that he had lured Zahra, 22, into a final meeting by claiming he was suffering from throat cancer.
Zahra had already feared her former boyfriend and did not want to see him again. She agreed only after he persuaded her to meet for what she believed would be one last conversation. She chose a public restaurant because she thought the presence of other people would make the meeting safe.
Instead, Farid A. used the encounter to attack her. The court heard that he pulled a pencil from his pocket and stabbed her in the neck. After the pencil lead broke, he forced her to the ground, knelt on her, and tried to strangle her.
Witnesses to the attack intervened and pulled him off the victim, and he was arrested.
The case had already gone through court once, but the original sentence caused prosecutors to appeal. Farid A. was first given a juvenile sentence of two and a half years. Germany’s Federal Court of Justice later overturned that ruling and sent the case back to Magdeburg to be heard again by a different chamber.
At the retrial, Farid A. admitted hurting Zahra but denied that he had tried to kill her. “I’m sorry, I can’t explain it myself. Yes, I hurt her. But I never intended to kill her,” he told the court, according to reporting by Bild.
But the court was also told what he allegedly said to police shortly after the attack. According to an officer, Farid A. made the remark after being informed of his rights and offered a lawyer.
“I didn’t want to let her live anymore. She’s like an animal to me. I’m the kind of guy who doesn’t care if I go to prison for 20 years,” he allegedly said.
The court confirmed that the defense has filed an appeal against the new sentence.
