Trial in Graz

Almost pushed out of window: Was it attempted murder?

The crazy scenes took place on the fifth floor of this apartment building in Graz.

(Bild: Christian Jauschowetz)

A 59-year-old Mongolian man stood trial in Graz on Tuesday for attempted murder. In a drunken stupor, he allegedly tried to throw his wife out of a fifth-floor window. The man claims not to remember anything and his wife defended him - in vain.

The 59-year-old Mongolian and his wife of the same age have known each other since childhood. They have been married for 40 years and the parents of three children moved to Austria in 2011. Both describe their marriage as harmonious, with hardly any arguments.

However, the incident in September last year, for which the man was tried by a jury on Tuesday for attempted murder, paints a very different picture: with a bottle of vodka in him, which the man probably wanted to use to combat the hangover from the previous day, he allegedly pushed his wife to the open kitchen window of their shared apartment in Graz-Gries and tried to push her out - from the fifth floor.

Witness: "She screamed in panic"
Two witnesses observed the unbelievable scenes. "She was screaming in panic and jutted out of the window up to about her waist," described one passer-by. He claims to have seen the man repeatedly pushing the woman from behind. "I shouted up what was going on, then he stopped and both of them were away from the window."

The accused himself, who worked in a laundry until his arrest, can do little to clarify the facts of the case. He claims not to be able to remember anything due to his heavy intoxication and makes a rather impassive impression in court.

"The dilemma in this case is the question: what did he actually want?" the defense lawyer explained to the jury. The victim, the defendant's wife, had made a statement to the police immediately after the crime, but then remained silent - as a relative, she had every right to do so.

"We are trying to solve and prevent murders of women, but the victims must also participate!"

Richter Andreas Rom

Bild: Sepp Pail

Victim became entangled in contradictions
She then broke her silence in court, but this only caused more confusion. Contrary to her initial claims - that she had been scared to death and that her husband had said "Now you're going to die like this" - the woman obviously defended her husband. "I just wanted to get some fresh air by the window". She was unable to explain the witnesses' observations and her screams. Nor did she want to know anything more about the allegations recorded in the police report.

"Don't think you can take us for fools!" rumbled Judge Andreas Rom, whose patience ran out after repeated questions. "We are trying to solve and prevent murders of women, but the victims have to cooperate," the judge shook his head.

"I still love him"
"Because of the language barrier, she used her hands and feet to explain that he wanted to throw her out of the window," said a police officer, describing his impressions immediately after the intervention, thus corroborating the witnesses' statements.

The woman never tired of emphasizing that she had been married to her husband for 40 years and that there had never been any problems. "I still love him," she said when asked by the judge.

The jury found the man guilty of attempted murder. Sentence: 15 years in prison (not final).