Tages-Anzeiger Online from October 21, 2008
Thomas Hasler
Continued from October 24, 2008
Since Tuesday, the jury has been confronted with a difficult and humanly tragic case. The now 31-year-old Swiss woman has actually confessed. “What happened happened with the intent to kill,” she said toward the end of a long day. But she sees one detail in the course of the crime differently.
On October 25, 2005, there was another argument in an apartment in Kloten between the mother of the 17-month-old child and the biological father. As usual, the parents hurled accusations, insults, humiliations and insults at each other. The reason for the dispute was apparently the father's visitation rights.
When he threatened to go to guardianship court and take away custody, she says she became afraid and panicked. She would rather kill her son and then herself than leave the little one to his father. “Look here, that’s how it works,” she is said to have said. She put her son on the floor in the living room and choked him by the neck until he turned red. The father, completely perplexed at first, intervened and was able to push the mother away. The boy was not injured in a life-threatening manner and, according to specialists, will not suffer any permanent damage.
The look in his eyes
Two details in the indictment are controversial before a jury. The woman is accused of choking the child with both hands until the father pushed her away. The woman claims she was choking with only one hand. She also loosened her stranglehold before being pushed away. When she looked into the little one's eyes while he was choking, she only saw fear, horror and incomprehension. Then she realized: “I can’t, shouldn’t and don’t want to do that.”
The difference in versions is crucial. In both cases, the woman faces a conviction for attempted intentional homicide. If the prosecution's version is correct, the court can reduce the sentence because it remained an attempt. But if the defendant's version is correct, then there is probably a so-called "resignation and active remorse". If a perpetrator does not complete the criminal act on his own initiative, the court can even refrain from punishing him.
Three children - three fathers
Although the 31-year-old was questioned about herself for over four hours on the first day of the trial, a strangely blurry image of the woman remained. For almost a year and a half, she claimed that her father, who was also arrested as a result, was the perpetrator . The woman, mother of three children from three different fathers, has a severe personality disorder that is difficult to treat. According to her own statements, she was sexually abused by an aunt's partner for two years from the age of twelve and came into contact with various drugs at an early age. She lost her job in the nursing sector because she stole money from pensioners.
Her first child lives with his father. She gave her third child up for adoption after birth. She would rather see her second child dead than give it away. “I just wanted to protect him,” she said, crying. On Thursday the psychiatrist will answer the question about guilt.