A businessman who killed and dismembered his Miss Switzerland finalist wife has been accused of crying ‘crocodile tears’ by her devastated family as the case against him ended.
Father of two Marc Rieben, 43, is charged with the murder of Kristina Joksimovic, 38, and then using a jigsaw, knife and garden shears on her body before ‘pureeing’ the remains in a blender.
The killing in February 2024 made headlines around the world and is so graphic that the public has been excluded from the courthouse in Muttenz near Basel, which has been ringed by police in case of protests by feminist groups.
As the trial ended, Rieben – who prosecutors say should be jailed for life – was allowed to address the court by judge Daniel Schmid and made a pitiful apology which her family refused to listen to.
He said: ‘Thank you for the opportunity. Kristina lost her life. Her parents lost their beautiful daughter, and her sister lost her big sister, as well as her friends and followers.’
Shamelessly, he added: ‘We are all mourning Kristina; we miss her every day. No matter what I ever say or do, I cannot undo it. Kristina lives on in her angels. I’m sorry, I regret it. I could talk for a long time, but it changes nothing.’
However, a source close to Kristina’s family told the Daily Mail:’ It’s too late for all that now – he’s just crying crocodile tears to get a lighter sentence.
‘His legal team were appalling – they did all they could to paint Kristina as a violent woman when she was nothing but a kind and loving mother.
‘It was him who was the evil one. What he did to her after he killed her was awful. He deserves the maximum sentence, but if he can convince the court that it was self-defence, he will get a lower jail term.’
Marc Rieben, 43, is said to have used a jigsaw tool, a knife and garden shears on Kristina Joksimovic’s body before ‘pureeing’ the remains in the blender
Kristina, 38, was a model and a former Miss Switzerland finalist. Her parents, surviving family, and a women’s rights group have been named as civil plaintiffs in the case
As the trial wrapped up, defence teams used eyebrow-raising tactics as they accused Joksimovic of attacking her husband with a knife, forcing him to defend himself – and then bizarrely compared her to a wasp.
Defence lawyer Christian Von Wartburg said of his client: ‘Yes, it’s possible that it happened as the prosecutor says. It’s possible that he is the monster.
‘An impossible person who, for his own gratification, strangled his wife over a ridiculous pretext and dismembered her afterwards.
‘It’s possible that he acted in cold blood. That’s entirely possible.’
Then, pausing dramatically, he added: ‘It’s also possible that it was different. That it was as he says.’
Mr Von Wartburg said in his closing argument that ‘someone who is attacked does not commit murder’, insisting that his client was a ‘broken man’.
He went on:’He would do anything to undo this tragedy. He is not the monster he has been portrayed as by the prosecution and the plaintiffs. The accused is not the cold-blooded killer described in the indictment.’
Before adding somewhat insensitively, a cruel description of the victim saying a close friend had said she was ‘like a wasp, nicely dressed but with a sting’.
Sine Selman, another defence lawyer, claimed Rieben had written in his diary how his wife had attacked him on previous occasions.
She said Kristina had punched, kicked and bitten her client several times and had also attacked him with a stiletto, as well as targeting his groin.
Ms Selman claimed the victim had a violent temper because she had been ‘beaten as a child by her father’ while growing up.
She added: ‘On the day of the incident, the woman repeatedly tried to attack him with the knife. A struggle ensued, and he grabbed her neck and squeezed. He still can’t comprehend it. He was in mortal fear.’
Prosecutor Pascal Pilet immediately hit back at what he said was a ‘demolition’ of the victim’s character.
He said: ‘A great deal of information has been brought to light that has nothing to do with the case. This is unnecessary and was only intended to discredit her.
‘The defence said they did not want to violate her dignity, but then they did anyway, for example, was the wasp quote really?’
The grim crime is said to have happened in February 2024 in Binnigen, a well-to-do village close to Basel
Kristina and Rieben on their wedding day in 2017
Jessica Baltzer, lawyer for the couple’s surviving family, said: ‘The defendant never took a single moment to show how important the children are to him.
‘Throughout the entire proceedings, he showed absolutely no emotion.’
Ms Baltzer echoed the prosecution’s concerns over the attacks on Kristina and expressed shock that her clients’ mother had been subjected to a smear campaign all afternoon.
She said:’This has turned her from the victim of a homicide into the perpetrator of a knife attack.’
Rieben is charged with murder and desecration of the dead and admits to killing his wife, but insists it was self-defence.
The court heard how successful businessman Rieben grabbed his wife by the neck, pushed her against a wall and choked her using a ‘ribbon-like’ device around her neck.
Prosecutors say he also punched and kicked Kristina as he strangled her ‘perfidiously, cruelly and in cold blood’ with his victim suffering an ‘agonising’ death.
He then set about disposing of her body in the underground laundry room of the couple’s home using the jigsaw, garden shears, knife, ten litres of bleach and ultimately the blender.
While disposing of her body, he is also said to have removed her uterus, and because of the blood-chilling way he disposed of the corpse, the unusual charge of desecration of the dead has been added.
The indictment from the prosecution said Rieben acted ‘knowingly and intentionally, in full awareness and from a selfish attitude and mindset characterised by a need for control, resentment, revenge and massive anger’.
Kristina coached the next generation of models for pageants, as well as businesswomen
Prosecutors say the motive for the murder was Kristina’s request for a divorce, which Rieben refused, and after the murder, he is said to have calmly gone to a local restaurant for a meal.
His wife’s remains were discovered by her horrified father, who had gone to the couple’s home in leafy Binningen near Basel after calls to her mobile went unanswered.
Prosecutors have called for life while his legal team are saying he should get three years at most for ‘excessive self-defence ‘, and he denies the charges of murder and disturbing the peace of the dead by dismembering Kristina’s body.
Judge Schmid will deliver his verdict on May 13.
