Four men who stabbed a 28-year-old woman to death in front of her daughter in a so-called honour killing have been jailed for 25 years each.

The men, who were all members of a Syrian Kurdish family, murdered the woman, named only as Roshin, after she divorced her husband and started a relationship with an Arabic man.

The killing took place in Apeldoorn in September 2023 as Roshin left her home in Caspar Fagelstraat with her three-year-old daughter. Her brother, 36-year-old Peshang A., crept up on her from behind and stabbed her 28 times.

Her husband, who was also her cousin, and two other brothers and cousins, planned the killing in revenge for A.’s new relationship and the fact that she had chosen to stay in Apeldoorn rather than move in with her parents in The Hague.

Her daughter was not physically harmed in the attack, but the court said she had “seen how her mother died in front of her eyes in an extremely violent way”.

Intense collaboration

All four men were found guilty at the district court in Arnhem of plotting the killing, which was the result of “intense collaboration” to arrange for Peshang A. to travel from Denmark to Apeldoorn. He killed his sister with a kitchen knife taken from the B&B accommodation where he was staying.

Peshang A. confessed to the crime shortly afterwards. His co-defendants were his and Roshin’s brother, Ahmad A., 28, from Voorburg, and two cousins from Germany, Walid A., 27, and Ahmad A., 37. The latter was Roshin’s husband.

The prosecutor said at a previous hearing that Roshin was “slaughtered in broad daylight and in a bestial fashion”, adding that violence to defend a family’s honour was “a completely unacceptable and unwanted phenonmenon that has absolutely no place in our society.”

The men were also ordered to pay damages of €70,000 to Roshin’s daughter.