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How often does it happen that an entire courtroom suffers with the defendant? The 40-year-old woman with a silk headscarf wants to testify, but she is intimidated and upset, weeps silently and can barely utter a word. The mother is said to have killed her four-year-old son: she deliberately threw him from a bridge in Rotenburg into the Wümme, said public prosecutor Pia Geisler on Tuesday at the start of the trial in the Verden district court. The child drowned in the river. The charge is manslaughter (Az. Ks 101/21).
The defendant “killed a person without being a murderer,” said Geisler. Paragraph 212.1 of the Criminal Code provides for imprisonment between five years and life imprisonment. The boy came to the children’s clinic in Rotenburg on November 2, 2020 with severe burns. He had to be operated on three times. The mother, who is Turkish, said that she accidentally scalded him with hot water while washing, the prosecutor said.
Hospital employees wanted to notify the youth welfare office
The employees in the hospital found the injuries suspicious, they wanted to call in the youth welfare office. The mother then took her child out of the clinic. “The defendant feared that her custody would be withdrawn,” said Geisler. In the woman’s mind, this also meant that the boy would grow up not as a Muslim, but as a Christian. That’s why she threw her son over the railing of the bridge into the water to kill him.
She then wanted to commit suicide, but did not succeed. Hours later, the police in Rotenburg picked up the distraught woman. The body of the drowned child was found in a nightly search. The mother was first placed in a psychiatric hospital and later in custody.
Judge breaks off the trial
When the woman tried to testify through an interpreter, but could not, the presiding judge Volker Stronczyk broke off the questioning and adjourned the hearing. “Everyone in the room could see that the situation is very stressful for you,” he reassured the defendant as she apologized for her breakdown. “We negotiate the whole thing calmly and patiently.” The judge ordered defense attorney Daniela Post to summarize her client’s testimony in writing for the next meeting on April 30th.
How often does it happen that an entire courtroom suffers with the defendant? The 40-year-old woman with a silk headscarf wants to testify, but she is intimidated and upset, weeps silently and can barely utter a word. The mother is said to have killed her four-year-old son: she deliberately threw him from a bridge in Rotenburg into the Wümme, said public prosecutor Pia Geisler on Tuesday at the start of the trial in the Verden district court. The child drowned in the river. The charge is manslaughter (Az. Ks 101/21).
The defendant “killed a person without being a murderer,” said Geisler. Paragraph 212.1 of the Criminal Code provides for imprisonment between five years and life imprisonment. The boy came to the children’s clinic in Rotenburg on November 2, 2020 with severe burns. He had to be operated on three times. The mother, who is Turkish, said that she accidentally scalded him with hot water while washing, the prosecutor said.
Hospital employees wanted to notify the youth welfare office
The employees in the hospital found the injuries suspicious, they wanted to call in the youth welfare office. The mother then took her child out of the clinic. “The defendant feared that her custody would be withdrawn,” said Geisler. In the woman’s mind, this also meant that the boy would grow up not as a Muslim, but as a Christian. That’s why she threw her son over the railing of the bridge into the water to kill him.
She then wanted to commit suicide, but did not succeed. Hours later, the police in Rotenburg picked up the distraught woman. The body of the drowned child was found in a nightly search. The mother was first placed in a psychiatric hospital and later in custody.
Judge breaks off the trial
When the woman tried to testify through an interpreter, but could not, the presiding judge Volker Stronczyk broke off the questioning and adjourned the hearing. “Everyone in the room could see that the situation is very stressful for you,” he reassured the defendant as she apologized for her breakdown. “We negotiate the whole thing calmly and patiently.” The judge ordered defense attorney Daniela Post to summarize her client’s testimony in writing for the next meeting on April 30th.
