A 20-year-old Syrian woman was found dead in Germany and is thought to have been killed by her family who saw her as 'unclean' after gang rape.
A 20-year-old woman in Germany has been found dead in what is believed to have been an honor killing.
It is suspected her mother ordered the killing and her father and two brothers carried it out. Her family regarded the woman as ‘unclean’ following her gang rape by three men in her native Syria two years ago.
The young woman, identified as Rokstan M. was found in a shallow grave near the German city of Dessau.
The autopsy found she had been stabbed multiple times.
Rokstan had integrated into Germany well according to authorities. She had been living in a house for single women and working as a translator for Syrian refugees.
Several days before she was murdered Rokstan moved in with her family. She may have expected the killing, since she changed her WhatsApp profile to “I am waiting for death. But I am too young to die.”
Her employer, Mark Kruger, told police he had heard the mother had ordered the killing after failing to contract a hitman to murder her daughter in the past.
In a taped interview with Kruger, Rokstan had related the tale of her gang rape and her family’s hateful reaction.
“I was taken by three men” she said. “Ever since that time my family have regarded me as unclean. My mother and my brothers mistreat me. They say that I deserve to die.”
Attorney-General Christian Priessner said the murder appeared to have been “carried out by persons in her close circle with a cultural motive.”
Her father, Hasso, and two brothers are believed to have fled and police are looking for them for questioning.
Read more on 'honor killings' at the Honor Diaries website.