Attempted murder trial

Jealousy dispute in Graz ended with a stab to the stomach

A 48-year-old Hungarian woman is charged with the attempted murder of her partner.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/zVg)

A 48-year-old woman allegedly stabbed her partner in the stomach with a knife in Graz in the spring and fatally injured him. The two had previously drunk a lot of alcohol and argued. Now the woman is on trial for attempted murder. 

The bloody end to a relationship dispute was the subject of a jury trial at Graz Criminal Court on Thursday. According to the indictment, a 48-year-old Hungarian woman allegedly inflicted life-threatening injuries on her 31-year-old partner, also from Hungary, in April by stabbing him in the stomach. The man only survived through emergency surgery. 

The disaster took its course at Graz Central Station, where the woman and her partner drank "small bottles, like Jägermeister". The 48-year-old lived on the streets most of the time and only did odd jobs. The two then moved on to the apartment of the woman's son-in-law, where the booze continued to flow.

Jealousy drove the woman into a rage
During the course of the evening, the accused received a phone call from a woman with whom her partner had allegedly had an affair before. That evening, she is said to have said that she "wanted him again". Then "the defendant's fuses blew", the public prosecutor described. Anger, rage and disinhibition due to alcohol caused the woman to go into the kitchen, get a knife and stab her partner in the stomach. 

The man collapsed in the anteroom and it was only after a call from the defendant's son-in-law, who was in the bathroom during the crime, that the rescue chain was set in motion. The victim's small intestine was perforated during the attack and the medical examiner's report states that the man would certainly have died without intensive medical care and emergency surgery. 

"She wanted to kill him," emphasizes the public prosecutor, "and did not throw an object at the victim, as is often the case with domestic violence, but deliberately grabbed a knife." 

"Wanted to slit my wrists"
The Hungarian woman - who had a blood alcohol level of 1.7 at the time of the crime - tearfully refused to confess in court. She did report a violent argument and that she had become "very angry". However, she had tried to cut her own wrists with the knife because her partner had told her to "die". He had previously given her a "powerful slap". 

He then approached her and grabbed her hand, in which she was holding the knife, and pulled it in his direction - effectively stabbing himself through her hand. 

The 48-year-old's defense lawyer, Manfred Arbacher-Stöger, also has his doubts about the attempted murder charge: "The public prosecutor assumes that my client took the knife from the kitchen." The accused slept on the street most of the time and therefore always had a knife in her pocket for safety. When the argument escalated, she initially only held it protectively in front of her. 

Victim appears to have gone into hiding
The judges were surprised that the woman seemed to remember the alleged accident well in court, whereas she had told the police a different version and stated that she could barely remember it. The victim is also said to have changed her statement several times.

The 31-year-old could not be questioned again in court. He traveled back to Hungary after his recovery and the judiciary has so far tried in vain to establish contact. An address was only found the day before the trial. It remains to be seen whether it will be possible to locate the man by the next trial date and persuade him to testify - the trial has been adjourned.