Friday, January 15, 2010

Love, Death, and Broken Beer Bottles

Cultural Enrichment News

Strangely enough, these two sordid tales of cultural enrichment in Austria don’t sound a whole lot different from what happens in seamy low-life redneck neighborhoods in my part of the world. The female victim in the second article was probably veiled, but otherwise… it’s raw material for Johnny Cash.

Our Austrian correspondent ESW has translated two articles from the print edition of Österreich, January 14. First, from page 14:

Tunisian man (25) destroyed face of Afghani (49) in a bar in Graz

Brutal nose attack solved

Afghani asylum seeker’s nose amputated to the root [with a glass shard].

Styria — The brutal attack took place in the “Frühbar” in Graz [capital city of Styria]. At first, the investigators’ efforts were met with a wall of silence, but finally witnesses stepped forward, explaining that they saw a guest destroying a beer bottle in a back room of the bar, then attacking Abdolrahim S. Following the descriptions of witnesses, the Tunisian asylum-seeker Ramzi R. was apprehended and identified by the victim as the perpetrator. Reason for the attack: Lots of alcohol and derogatory words…

And from page 15, same newspaper:
- - - - - - - - -
Victim (36) in critical condition after stabbing

Jealous Afghani attacks ex-wife with a knife

The man suspected his ex-wife of having an affair.


Vienna — Wednesday, shortly after 4 pm, shrill screams could be heard in Vienna’s 4th district. Seconds later a bleeding woman dragged herself to her next door neighbor and collapsed. Later, police were able to arrest 36-year-old Afghani by the name of Tamin N. The man is accused of stabbing his ex-wife Angel Y. (36), the mother of their three children.


For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.

2 comments:

Dymphna said...

to be fair to the jealous husband, even the state of Texas (until very recently) allowed for these "crimes of passion" and gave a wink plus a lighter sentence to those fellows.

Of course, the perp in Texas wouldn't get family approval for his crime, and no one ever hid him as these tribal folks appear to do with their miscreants.

On the surface it looks the same, but the everyday reality for these victims is quite different.

Anonymous said...

Dymphna, I can understand finding your wife in bed with another guy and shooting them a crime of passion(and the dude should still go to jail regardless). Suspecting someone of infidelity and attacking them with a knife is something else and the problem is that anything can be considered a crime of passion - like this case. For example, if I'd cheat on my husband(which wouldn't happen, but it's a hypothetical example), I wouldn't really consider it assault if he hit me because if I'd be in his position, I'd probably do it too. Obviously, this has to be discouraged, but there are alleviating circumstances.