Thursday November 16, 2017
Kabul (BNA) An Afghan asylum seeker who raped and killed an EU official's daughter in Germany has attempted suicide in his cell three times.
Hussein Khavari ambushed 19-year-old medical student Maria Ladenburger in Freiberg in October last year before raping her and drowning her in a river.
Last week, dental checks found that Khavari, who had claimed he is 17, and an 'unaccompanied minor' when the attack took place is between 22 and 29 years old. As the trial enters its 13th day, it was reported that Khavari had tried to commit suicide for a third time on Sunday evening.
Khavari was treated on the spot for his injuries, and he appeared in court on yesterday.
Despite the defendant's suicide attempts, psychiatric expert Dr Hartmut Pleines told the court he did not see any depression or psychological abnormalities in him. This comes after dental expert appeared to have wrecked his hopes of escaping with a lighter sentence by showing with 'near certainty' that Khavari was 25. The Afghan refugee originally claimed to be just 17.
Speaking at Khavari's trial last week, research scientist Ursula Wittwer-Backofen revealed her analysis of his upper right canine tooth.
The tooth was removed eight months before he attacked the teenager. He kept the tooth as some sort of souvenir and on Tuesday it became exhibit A in the courtroom in Freiburg, southern Germany, where he has been standing trial for the past two months for the crime.
Mrs. Wittwer-Backofen said it has been established with 99.7 per cent probability that his true age is between 22.05 and 29.55 years, but that she was certain he was 25.
This means when he is sentenced for Maria's murder he can expert no leniency for his age but a mandatory life sentence.
He had earlier testified that on the night of the killing he was so drunk he was ejected from a bar and left alone by his friends in town.
He claims he accidentally came across Maria who shouted out as she fell from her bicycle.
He said he pressed her mouth shut then choked her with a scarf and put her unconscious into the water.
'When I saw how pretty she was, I wanted to have sex with her,' he said, but claims he was too drunk.
He broke down in court and added: 'I want to apologize to the family of Maria'.
Reading from a statement he went on: 'I beg your pardon. I want to apologise to the family of Maria. I wish I could undo it. What I have done, I am sad for from the bottom of my heart '.
Prosecutors dispute his account of the murder and say he planned it beforehand.
Khavari ended a life rich in potential and polarised a nation struggling to adapt to over a million refugees in its midst.
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