HAMBURG, Germany, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- An Afghan-born man has been charged with murdering his teenage sister in Germany because she lived a Western lifestyle.

"I only want to talk" -- that was Ahmad Obeidi's promise. Yet after luring his sister Morsal, 16, into a late-night meeting in a Hamburg parking lot, 24-year-old Ahmad took out a knife and stabbed her 23 times. Ahmad fled, and Morsal died an hour later.

Morsal had been a lively teenager who did community service and liked to wear skirts and makeup -- normal for a girl her age in Hamburg, one of Germany's most multicultural cities.

Yet her brother did not agree with her lifestyle. Ahmad, who has a history of criminal violence, repeatedly beat her, and in May 2009 arranged the meeting to murder her -- at least that's how the prosecution sees it.

Ahmad's lawyer claims his client killed in the heat of the moment, citing a psychologist's opinion that said Ahmad has diminished criminal responsibility because of his extremely low intelligence.

The so-called honor killing has enraged women's rights activists. One group staged a demonstration in front of the Hamburg courthouse where the case opened Tuesday. It wanted to direct attention to cases like Morsal's and that of Hatun Surucu, a Berlin woman of Turkish background who was killed by her brother in 2005 for her unwillingness to accept the traditional customs her family wanted to impose on her.

To read original article, go to: