Sentenced in Lucerne court Man almost breaks woman's neck - and splints himself with cardboard

A 30-year-old man from Iraq almost broke his wife's neck. He has now been sentenced by the Lucerne Criminal Court.

A 30-year-old man has been sentenced to two years and five months' imprisonment by the Lucerne Criminal Court for massive domestic violence. The man, an Iraqi, had severely abused his wife and inflicted serious injuries on her, as reported by "Zentralplus". He was also deported from Switzerland for ten years. The verdict is not yet final, as an appeal has been lodged.

The acts of violence occurred in 2022 and 2023 in the apartment they shared in Kriens. In September 2022, there was a particularly brutal incident: the man almost broke his wife's neck by pushing her head and chin onto the bed with such force that a cracking sound could be heard.

Instead of calling the ambulance, he improvised a splint made of cardboard and a cloth for her neck. "The pain was so severe that the woman lost consciousness for two hours," reads the verdict.

Man denies accusations

There were also further attacks after the separation. At the beginning of 2023, the man lay in wait for his ex-wife outside her apartment and attacked her again. He threatened to kill her and tried to stab her in the neck with a pen. When this failed, he hit her head several times with full force on the stone floor until she lay there covered in blood. The woman had to be treated in hospital for several days.

In court, the accused denied the incidents and spoke of "spirits" that had influenced him. However, an expert opinion made it clear that there was no serious mental illness. The court interpreted his statements as an attempt to shift responsibility onto a mystical figure and recognized strongly misogynistic and patriarchal thought patterns in his behaviour.