German Judge Stirs Anger for Citing Koran

Mar. 24, 2007— -- "This verdict makes my hair stand up, it is insane," said Alice Schwarzer, editor in chief of Emma, reacting to a German judge's decision that has drawn harsh criticism from all fields of the political spectrum as well as legal experts.

"There have been quite a few cases in the past where perpetrators have received milder sentencing because they came from a different cultural background, but this verdict truly tops everything I've seen," Schwarzer told ABC News. "It undermines German jurisdiction and is yet another proof of the ongoing Islamisation here in Europe."

What happened?

German divorce court judge Christa Datz-Winter saw fit to reject an application for a speedy divorce by referring to a passage of the Koran.

In a letter to the wife's lawyer, Barbara Becker-Rojczyk, who had applied for such a speedy divorce to be granted to her client Najat L., the judge pointed out that the couple came from a Moroccan cultural background in which is not uncommon for husbands to beat their wives.

"The exercise of the right to castigate does not fulfill the hardship criteria as defined by the German Federal Law," she wrote. "It must be taken into account here, that both man and wife have Moroccan backgrounds."

Najat L., a 26-year-old mother of two, wanted to divorce her husband, who she said had beaten her and even threatened her with murder. The woman had called the police a few times when her husband got violent. The husband was eventually forced to move out of the couple's apartment, but he allegedly continued to terrorize her. Even after they had separated, he would not leave her alone and instead threatened to kill her and to kidnap their children.

A fast-track divorce seemed like the only way out of misery. Trying to avoid the mandatory separation year before a divorce becomes legal, the wife filed for divorce with a Frankfurt/Main court last October, hoping that her husband would leave her alone as soon as they got divorced. Becker-Rojczyk, her lawyer, was convinced that the domestic violence and death threats easily fulfilled the "hardship" criteria necessary for a fast track divorce.