A Nigerian asylum seekker, simply identified as Anthony I, is on trial in Muenster, Germany for stabbing and killing his girlfriend Soopika Paramanatha in February this year.
Prosecutors allege that the 28 year-old Anthony brutally murdered Paramanathan, a 22-year-old German student known locally as the “Angel of Ahaus” due to her volunteer work with refugees.
German police have not released Anthony I.’s full last name. And Anthony in court had kept mute, according to a report by Bild, the German tabloid.
Anthony I. allegedly attacked Paramanathan on Feb. 11 after she ended their relationship, prosecutors said – stabbing her repeatedly with a long-bladed knife in her head, neck and breasts.
He was said to have stabbed the lady 22 times.
She sprayed his face with pepper spray in defence and was raced to a local hospital but later died after suffering substantial blood loss.
Anthony I. was stuffing Paramanathan’s body into a large suitcase on the street when witnesses said they spotted him. He escaped from the crime scene and was caught by police in Basel, Switzerland two days later.
Paramanathan’s father, Sivasamboo, said his daughter “felt threatened by him” in the days leading up to the attack and was afraid, Bild reported.
She met the Nigerian in 2016 at a local refugee home in Ahaus, Germany, where Anthony I. was living and Paramanathan volunteered.
Anthony I. came to Germany in 2015, after spending three years in Italy.
He had claimed in his asylum application that he was forced to leave his country, Nigeriia in 2012 for being homosexual. He also claimed that he had fought against the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram in Nigeria. The application was in the process of being rejected, because of the apparent lies.
Anthony is expected to get life imprisonment when an anticipated guilty verdict is handed down on September 20.
Soopika’s lawyer Hans-Peter Maas said; ‘She was a good person. On her birthday she sent gifts to homeless people in Sri Lanka.
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