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That afternoon, Wael D. shot at two police officers on a bicycle. “I killed my girlfriend,” he said. Officers saw scratches on his cheek and neck. Officers found the woman on the floor with an extension cord around her neck. It was her or me, D. told the police.
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File image of Syrian actress Raifa al-Riz.
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He later told officers that he approached her from behind when she was sitting on the couch. He pressed his hand over her mouth and nose and dragged her across the room. He then strangled her with a cable around her neck. After a fight of thirty minutes she was dead. DNA traces under the victim’s nails and on the extension cord confirm this story, said the public prosecutor in the court in Zwolle. Experts say that D. appears psychotic and long-term treatment in a secure clinic is therefore necessary. A motive for the murder, however, remains unclear, according to the Public Prosecution Service.
Angst
D., like the victim, came from Syria. She helped him build a life in the Netherlands and had taken him in temporarily after the divorce. But she was anxious, the chairman said, so she slept with the bedroom door locked. D., who kept his mouth cap on during the session in the court in Zwolle, did not want to respond to questions. If he didn’t kill her, she would kill him, he told officers on the day of the murder. After that day, he was silent about the murder.
The victim was one of the most famous actresses in the Middle East, her son said at the hearing. “I’m here to demand justice and make sure the killer gets what he deserves,” he said.
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