Swiss businessman Marc Rieben, 43, is currently on trial for the February 2024 murder of his beauty pageant wife, Kristina Joksimovic

Rieben is said to have used a jigsaw blade, a knife and garden shears on Kristina’s body before dissolving her body in bleach and ‘pureeing’ her remains in a blender

The couple had two young daughters who were two and four at the time of their mother died

Their eldest daughter screamed in court on Tuesday that her father was lying when he told police he didn’t mean to kill his wife

Her parents, the couple’s two children, and a women’s rights group have been named as civil plaintiffs in the case

The murder was ‘intentional,’ Rieben had studied how to dismember his wife’s body -‘his behaviour demonstrated the full extent of his hatred for his wife,’ prosecutors said 

Rieben through his lawyers, has confessed, claiming he acted in self-defense because Kristina had attacked him and he was worried for their two children  

Father-of-two Marc Rieben, [right], is on trial accused of the gruesome murder of his wife, Kristina Joksimovic [left] inside their home in Binnigen, Switzerland, in February 2024. Her body showed signs of blunt force trauma, bruises on her legs and cuts on her face – autopsy. Her womb had also been removed and “pureed” in an industrial blender

The four-year-old daughter of a Miss Switzerland finalist who was brutally murdered said her father was lying when he told police he didn’t mean to kill his wife. According to the autopsy report, her body showed signs of blunt force trauma, bruises on her legs and cuts on her face. Some internal organs had also been removed and “pureed” in an industrial blender.
Prior to the domestic murder Marc Rieben, a successful businessman and Kristina Joksimovic, 38, a model and former Miss Switzerland finalist had been married for seven years. The couple shared two toddlers aged two and four at the time of their mother’s death at the hands of her spouse.
Rieben, now 43, is currently on trial in Basel, Switzerland for the depraved February 2024 murder of Joksimovic with her parents, the couple’s two children, and a women’s rights group named as civil plaintiffs in the case.
Rieben has been accused of using a jigsaw blade, a knife and garden shears on to dismember the body before dissolving Kristina’s body in bleach and ‘pureeing’ her remains in a blender. 
According to the charging documents, Rieben grabbed his wife by the neck, pushed her against a wall and choked her using a ‘ribbon-like’ device around her neck.
The motive for the twisted killing was Rieben’s refusal to grant Joksimovic a divorce, the suit alleges.
In court on Tuesday morning, a lawyer representing the couple’s two young daughters told the court about how the two children, who were aged two and four at the time of their mother’s death, found out that she had died. 
‘They learned a few days after the incident that their mother was in heaven and their father was in prison and wouldn’t be returning anytime soon,’ the family’s attorney informed the court adding.
‘The children learned that their mother had died during an argument with their father. That the police assume their father is responsible for the death. And that he says he didn’t do it on purpose.’
at which point, the older child responded: ‘He’s lying, he’s lying, he’s lying.’
Questioned further, the now-six-year-old explained: ‘He lied to me when he picked us up. He said he didn’t know where Mummy was.’ 
After the murder the defendant calmly took his daughters to a restaurant as if nothing had happened, adding to their trauma, the court heard from the plaintiff’s attorney.
The lawyer for the children who is demanding 100,000 Swiss Francs, ($127,727), as compensation for each girl, told the court, ‘Both parents placed the children at the center of their lives, but they had different ideas of how to raise their daughters.

Kristina Joksimovic, a 38-year-old mother of two, was a model and a former Miss Switzerland finalist allegedly was killed by her husband two years ago. Rieben is said to have used a jigsaw blade, a knife and garden to shears to dismember his wife’s body before dissolving it in bleach and ‘pureeing’ her remains in a blender

‘The defendant wanted absolute control, the victim wanted to explain they were separating as simply as possible in a way that wouldn’t break their hearts but now their hearts are breaking every day.
‘They learned a few days after the incident that their mummy was in heaven and wouldn’t be coming back. Today the children know their father killed their mother and in the future they will learn more.
‘They miss their mother and are angry with their father, they are being looked after by their mother’s parents and will need therapy for years to come.’
Anina Hofer, attorney for Kristina’s parents, reading an emotional statement from her mother told the court: ‘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.’
She added: ‘It wasn’t a tragedy that occurred. He acted and brought about his wife’s violent death and he hasn’t apologized for it.’ 
‘This case is almost unparalleled in its cruelty. The father found the body parts while the mother was speaking to the accused just a few meters away.
‘It’s almost unimaginable, the consequences for the family are devastating. The mother is on long term sick leave and the sister has put her career plans on hold.’

Having killed Kristina, Marc Rieben allegedly spent hours dismembering her body in the bathroom and dissolving body parts in around 10 liters of bleach. Despite a 7-yerar union in which they shared two young daughters, prosecutors note that his ‘behaviour after the crime was almost beyond belief in its cruelty and absurdity’

Earlier today, the prosecutor said that after Kristina’s death, her husband spent hours dismembering her body in the bathroom and dissolving body parts in around 10 liters of bleach. 
‘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 program called the Atlas of Human Anatomy, which explained why Rieben knew how to remove the arms and legs at the elbows and kneecaps.
The couple were living in Binnigen, a well-to-do village close to Basel, when the murder happened in February 2024
The victim’s father concerned when his daughter failed to collect the children, and he found parts of her body while looking for her at her home.
Due to the gruesome details, the indictment was not made available as usual to the general public, and only accredited media have been allowed to consult it, with no copies allowed to be photographed.
Rieben allegedly also punched and kicked Joksimovic as he strangled her ‘perfidiously, cruelly and in cold blood’ with his victim suffering an ‘agonizing’ death, the court heard.
He would go on to dispose of her body in the basement laundry room of the couple’s home. He dismembered the body using a jigsaw blade, garden shears, knife, then ultimately the blender.
According to the indictment, while disposing of her body, he is also said to have removed her uterus.
Based on cold-blooded manner of disposal, the charge of desecration of a body is included.
The indictment sates that Rieben acted ‘knowingly and intentionally, in full awareness and from a selfish attitude and mindset characterized by a need for control, resentment, revenge and massive anger’.
Rieben has claimed his wife threatened him with a knife during the divorce dispute.
Countering the defendant’s claim, prosecutors on Tuesday argued that based on evidence from the forensic medical report, ‘there was never a knife attack,’ while maintaining that a minor injury on the right side of the defendant’s jaw was not caused by the alleged kitchen knife, according to the forensic report.
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 report clearly refutes the man’s statement,’ the prosecutor said.
The prosecutor further noted Rieben’s history of domestic violence, stating that he had been repeatedly physically abusive throughout his marriage to Kristina.
Witnesses listed for the trial include friends of Kristina who will reveal how she had disclosed to them her seven-year marriage was floundering in the weeks leading up to the murder.
‘He has also attacked his partner by the neck in the past,’ she said, adding that an ex-girlfriend also claimed Rieben had run over her foot with a car.
Court-appointed expert Professor Frank Urbaniok told the court he had diagnosed Rieben with narcissistic traits and obsessive-compulsive disorder, adding 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.
Urbaniok added the caveat that there was also a significant potential for ‘recidivism’ from Rieben- that the defendant had the potential to re-offend.
‘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,’ Urbaniok explained.

Mother-of-two Kristina Joksimovic, was a former beauty pageant queen and catwalk coach. According to a friend, her husband who has confessed to her murder, “was really derogatory with her, with gestures, words and even his tone… he wanted Kristina to disappear,” the friend said

Admitting to his crime with remorse, Rieben said he regretted his actions and can not believe he did that to Kristine whom he loved very much.
As a sign of his remorse Rieben said, he had just authorized payment of $127,640 to his daughters and his parents-in-law
‘It would be wonderful if you could use it to do something that brings some lightness into your lives,’ he told them in court.
The court asked Rieben why the monetary offer was only being made today, following two years of proceedings, he husband responded: ‘Because this is the first opportunity I’ll have to see the bereaved. ‘This offer is made regardless of what the court decides. I simply want to show my support. It’s a gesture.
‘Human lives cannot be replaced; I can only offer my sympathy,’ he continued.
‘I would like to express my deepest sympathy to all those affected for their suffering. [Kristina] is gone. Her cool zest for life, her radiant smile – simply gone. The world has collapsed’.
Speaking of the time leading up to Kristina’s death, he explained that although ‘the arguments were the main focus’, people should not forget ‘we had a passion’.
He said he ‘admired’ his wife and celebrated her ‘entrepreneurial success and her ambitions’. 
Continuing, Rieben revealed that the pair had been attending couples counseling since 2018, after only being married since 2017, and ‘were ready to work on ourselves’. 
In his account, he recalled: ‘In this bar in 2016, we agreed that we would go through everything together. I told her it wouldn’t be easy. But we agreed: ‘We’re going all in.’
Under cross-examination from his legal team, Rieben was asked if he ‘regretted’ what happened and replied: ‘It was an accident. I didn’t want it to happen; I didn’t choose for it to happen.
‘I didn’t go into the kitchen and get a knife. In the end, she died in my arms. It’s tragic and unforgivable.
‘Maybe with hindsight I should have just tried to dodge the knife.’
When asked again why he didn’t call paramedics, he replied: ‘Because there was just no time. It all happened so fast, there was no opportunity, there was no stopping.’
Rieben was also asked by his lawyer why the court should believe him and his claim of self-defense, and he replied: ‘Because that’s how it happened.’

The murder alegedly happened in February 2024, at the couple’s home in Binnigen, a well-to-do village close to Basel

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.’ 
Rieben through his lawyers, has confessed but said he acted in self-defense because Kristina had attacked him and he was worried for their two children. 
One of the listed witnesses is a former partner who will testify that Rieben, who she says has a ‘violent temper’ also attacked her during their relationship
In a previous ruling, a court said Rieben had a ‘massive propensity for violence,’ adding that he also ‘exhibits sadistic-sociopathic traits, a low frustration tolerance and poor impulse control’.
Rieben has been in custody since his arrest and his trial is expected to last all week, with a verdict expected on May 13.