A Balcony Incident in Groningen

Several times in the past we have reported on culturally enriched “balcony incidents” in Sweden. Those cases generally involved a young woman who had been dating a boy of Swedish background (or otherwise engaged in shameful behavior), and then suddenly and inexplicably jumped from her apartment balcony whilst her father, brothers, uncles, etc. looked on helplessly.

This balcony incident in the Netherlands is different, because a knife was involved, and there’s no indication from the news story that the woman’s death was an honor killing. Furthermore, the only signifiers of cultural enrichment are the names “Fatima” and “Ali”.

Here’s the article from De Telegraaf, as translated by our Dutch correspondent Bolleke:

Fatima (35) stabbed on her own balcony

by Andre Spaansen

GRONINGEN — Local residents in a street in Groningen stood powerless yesterday, while seeing and hearing their neighbor Fatima (35) stabbed to death in her kitchen and on the balcony of her flat.

Her 51-year-old husband, Ali, was arrested immediately after the tragedy.

He ran through the Lierstraat. “The guy was covered in blood, especially his hands,” said a neighbor. Police officers seized the blood-covered suspect, cuffed him, and took him away.

“He wanted to say something, but that wasn’t allowed [by the police — translator],” said a neighbor. A shoe remained behind on the street.

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The mobile medical team could not save the woman. Neighbor Evert Schuls from across the street is devastated. A bus driver, he calls off his Sunday shift. “Her screams were heard outside our street. At first it sounded like a crying child,” he says. “She tried to escape, stood on the balcony. The flower pots and her headscarf fell off.”

Witnesses saw the man moving. “A neighbor shouted “Stop! Stop!” Neighbors ran to the balcony. “You hear it, but are too late…. Who gets to see a family drama really happening? Normally you read about it in the papers afterwards.” According to several witnesses, the man stabbed his wife in the throat.

It was the second violent death in a few months in the Lierstraat. Last December, two doors down a 27-year-old Groninger was shot. Last week in the Dierenriemstraat, dozens of meters away, a man died when refilling a gas lighter. “All these people die strange deaths, I cannot stand it,” said one young resident, who came to live in Groningen for her violence trauma therapy.

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