"Contribution to the murder"

Dead baby: why the grandfather is now under investigation

Symbolic image(Bild: Ruslan Galiullin)

A devout Muslim grandfather in Styria is alleged to have contributed to the death of his newborn grandson. He knew nothing about his daughter's relationship with a Christian. Here is a summary of why he is now under investigation. 

The "Krone" story about the grandfather who is possibly connected to the brutal death of his grandchild in Kapfenberg, who was just a few hours old, has made a big splash. There are many reasons why the devout Muslim is suddenly and repeatedly in the sights of the Leoben public prosecutor's office:

• At the trial in Leoben, the mother claimed to have killed her newborn son herself with scissors, a gift ribbon and blows to the head. According to an expert, however, she was suffering from severe blood loss and was therefore physically incapable of committing the crime alone.

• Her father had already been investigated beforehand, but the case was dropped. This changed again after the trial.

• The father of the then 29-year-old is considered a devout Muslim. He should never have found out about his daughter's relationship with the child's father, a Georgian. "He would not have tolerated that," the Georgian testified before Judge Roman Weiß.

• What's more, the father was in a room next door at the time of the birth. He claims not to have noticed anything about the birth and that he did not see his daughter the next day and left for Vienna.

• The fact that the woman's sister-in-law also packed the dead baby, placenta and bloody clothes into bin bags that night and tried to make them disappear also went unnoticed. As did the subsequent rescue operation after neighbors saw his distraught and bloodied daughter in the apartment building and raised the alarm.

• "I am convinced that the father knows more than he is saying," remarked judge Roman Weiß at the trial. The Leoben public prosecutor's office then reopened the investigation against him for "contributing to murder".