An evil husband who murdered his Miss Switzerland finalist wife and dismembered her body using a blender has been jailed for life.
Father of two Marc Rieben, 43, showed no emotion as the guilty verdict was passed but briefly appeared to stumble forward as the decision was read out to him.
The remains of Kristina Joksimovic, 38, were found by her horrified father and he was in court with his wife for the verdict with both sobbing loudly.
The killing in February 2024 made headlines around the world and the case was so graphic public were barred from the hearing and media could only follow from an adjoining court.
Around 50 demonstrators had gathered outside the court building in Muttenz near Basel for the decision and extra police were also drafted in.
Judge Daniel Schmid also ordered Rieben to pay 100,000 Swiss Francs compensation to the couple’s two daughters aged five and six, while Kristina’s father was awarded 120,000 Swiss Francs, her mother 100,000 and her sister 60,000 Francs.
The amounts were to be increased by 5 per cent interest from the date of the killing.
Passing sentence Judge Schmid said:’ There are cases that make fiction become reality. This case has changed our reality.
No court ruling can fill the void left by the loss of a loved one. We as a court will also never forget you and will carry you in our hearts.’
Marc Rieben, 43, has been jailed for life for the 2024 murder of his wife, Kristina Joksimovic
Kristina, 38, was a model and a former Miss Switzerland finalist
Outside the court there was applause from the crowd – many of them holding ballons and banners – when the verdict was announced.
The court had heard how successful businessman Rieben grabbed his wife by the neck, pushed her against a wall and choked her using a ‘ribbonlike’ device around her neck.
Prosecutors said he punched and kicked Kristina as he strangled her ‘perfidiously, cruelly and in cold blood’ with his victim suffering an ‘agonising’ death.
He then disposed her body in the underground laundry room of the couple’s home using a jigsaw, garden shears, knife, ten litres of bleach and then ultimately the blender.
While dismembering her body he also removed her uterus and because of the blood chilling way he disposed of the corpse, the unusual charge of desecration of the dead was 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’.
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 taken his children 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 had called for life while his legal team are saying he should get three years at most for ‘excessive self-defence’.
Addressing the court last week, Anina Hofer, the lawyer for Kristina’s parents, read out an emotional statement from her mother.
She said: ‘I stand here today in court as a mother who has lost her daughter. Whose children miss their mummy every day.
‘She was loving, protective of her children, and gave them everything. Just one month after she tried to forge a new path for herself and her children, she was brutally torn from life.
‘No verdict can bring our daughter back. But it can show that her life matters.’
The house Kristina shared with Mark lies abandoned in Binningen, Switzerland, near Basel
Kristina and Rieben on their wedding day in 2017
The 43-year-old had claimed his wife threatened him with a knife during the divorce dispute, claiming he acted in self defence, but prosecutors said this was false.
During the trial, the prosecutor said that based on evidence from the forensic medical report, ‘there was never a knife attack.’
She said a minor injury on the right side of Rieben’s jaw was not caused by the alleged kitchen knife, 20minuten reports.
No defensive wounds were found, the prosecutor added, and said the claim that Kristina was still holding the knife in her fist when she was killed is impossible.
‘The man’s behaviour after the crime was almost beyond belief in its cruelty and absurdity,’ said the prosecutor.
‘The man acted systematically and with a plan; his behaviour demonstrated the full extent of his hatred for his wife.’
The prosecutor also told the court the murder was ‘intentional’ and that Rieben had studied how to dismember his wife’s body.
She said: ‘For the classification of murder, the accused’s prior life and post-crime behaviour can be taken into account.’
The prosecutor then addressed the defendant’s actions after the crime, such as the dismemberment of the body, explaining how he must have researched how to dispose of the remains.
The court heard he had taught himself using a learning programme called the Atlas of Human Anatomy, which explained why Reiben knew how to remove the arms and legs at the elbows and kneecaps.
The trial opened last Monday with Rieben addressing the court and making a statement, blinking back tears as he claimed he ‘loved’ Kristina and her death was ‘an accident’, although he admitted grabbing her by the throat.
He said: ‘I have caused my family immeasurable suffering. Why? Why did I fail? Why couldn’t I prevent it? Why couldn’t I stop her from dying at my hands? I loved my wife with all my heart and believed in a future together.
‘It haunts me day and night. What I did is absolutely unforgivable, and I take full responsibility. I deeply regret it, and I apologise.’
He went on to explain that following his arrest, he was in solitary confinement and that he was allowed to write to his children and see his parents, but he added, ‘One day I would like to play with my children again.’
The last photo of the family together shared on Instagram in August 2023
Court-appointed expert Professor Frank Urbaniok told the court he had diagnosed Rieben with narcissistic traits and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Professor Urbaniok told Judge Schmid that Rieben acted with ‘almost meticulous precision’, highlighting how, after the murder, he had gone out for dinner with the couple’s two young children, acting as if nothing had happened.
He added:’ I have been working as an expert witness for 33 years and overseen 5,000 cases.
‘I have seen many people who have committed homicides against intimate partners. But I have never seen anything like this before.’
Professor Urbaniok added he thought there was also a significant potential for ‘recidivism’ from Rieben- in other words, he had the potential to reoffend.
He explained: ‘The accused is an intellectual, a very strategic thinker. He wants to control everything and insists on rules being followed. The victim, on the other hand, was more emotional.’
