45 against 100 kilos

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His mother and sister (at the back) came to the trial to keep their fingers crossed for the prisoner. They did an excellent job.

(Bild: HS)

No, he never maltreated his ex-wife with his fists, kicked her and repeatedly hit their underage daughter with a belt, says the Ukrainian (38) at the trial at Eisenstadt Regional Court. "I don't know why they say that!"

The Ukrainian, who lives in Eisenstadt, was wanted on an international arrest warrant. In August, the 38-year-old was taken into custody in Poland and transferred to the prison in his adopted home town. From there, the man was brought to trial for allegedly beating his wife with his fists, biting and kicking her and repeatedly and severely beating his underage daughter with a belt. The self-confessed moonlighter - he only has one and a half years of schooling - considered himself "not guilty".

"It wasn't very firm"
The bite was pure self-defense, he says. "We argued because she really wanted a new cell phone. But I didn't have any money. Then she bit my finger out of nowhere. She was very drunk." He pulled her towards him and bit below her left eye. "But it wasn't very hard." She used scissors to cut away the scraps of skin on her face. "That made the wound look worse than it actually was."

And anyway: "I never hit her with my fist. She's only 45 kilos, I'm 100. What could have happened! She has such bad teeth because she gave birth to six children. She'd be missing them all now. And who would have paid for the new ones?"

"None of this can be proven!"
The defendant's lawyer painted a confused picture of the alleged victim, who refrained from appearing at the regional court. "Lots of contradictory statements, and none of them are true! She also spoke of rape, broken bones, cirrhosis of the liver caused by beatings and that my client had threatened babies with a knife. None of this can be proven!"

The underage daughter did not attend the trial against her father either. "She was probably offended because I forbade her to use her cell phone in the evening. That's why she told the untruth."

The blameless Ukrainian got off with a diversion for the bite. Judge Melanie Gschiel acquitted him of coercion in case of doubt. The man was allowed to go home with his mother, who had watched the trial sobbing.