Processes - Fatal shooting: 29-year-old remains silent at start of trial
Police had been searching for him across Europe for months, and now a suspected gunman is on trial in Nuremberg. The 29-year-old is alleged to have shot at two friends on a busy street last October, killing one of them. The public prosecutor's office is therefore accusing him of murder and attempted murder, among other things.
According to the indictment, it is certain that the Turkish man and his two victims had argued before the crime. However, the reasons for this are unknown according to the prosecution - and remained so on the first day of the trial on Wednesday. The accused remained silent about the accusations. His client is currently not making any statements, said his defense lawyer Florian Münch.
The bloody deed caused horror and uncertainty in Nuremberg. The shots were fired in an area with sports bars and pubs, where many people were still out and about at the time of the crime in the evening. The police cordoned off the scene of the crime over a wide area, and officers with submachine guns were also deployed. However, the suspected perpetrator managed to escape.
Investigators searched for the man using photos and names and also searched buildings in Frankfurt am Main. At the end of January this year, a special task force was able to apprehend him in a hotel room in Rimini, Italy, where he was hiding. He has been in custody in Germany since mid-February.
The accused came into the courtroom at the beginning of the trial in handcuffs and shackles. He did not hide his face behind a file folder, as is often the case in trials. Motionless, he looked around the courtroom and in the direction of the cameras.
On the other side of the room sat the widow of the 30-year-old who had been killed. She looked unblinkingly at her husband's possible murderer. But when the presiding judge Cornelius Sello opened the trial, she left the room.
When her husband was shot, the young woman was pregnant with their second child. Sello emphasized that this was one reason why the crime could be considered particularly serious. If a court establishes the particular gravity of guilt, early release after 15 years is virtually impossible.
The public prosecutor's office also considers malice and base motives to be present. According to the public prosecutor's office, the two victims had not expected an attack and had no way of fending it off. "The accused deliberately took advantage of this situation," the indictment states.
After the argument, there was initially radio silence between the men, as the public prosecutor's office reported. But then they arranged to meet in a café to talk things over and make up - at least that's what the two victims thought. When they arrived, the suspect is said to have fired at them with a pistol. The 30-year-old was hit in the chest. He later died in hospital. The 35-year-old was hit in the stomach and thigh. An operation was able to save his life.
During the attack, the shooter is said to have shouted an insult in Turkish and "Why did you write to my girlfriend?". According to the investigation, one of the two victims had contacted the accused's ex-girlfriend via chat message. Whether this was the trigger for the crime remained open on the first day of the trial, as did the reasons for the argument.
PM on the indictment PM on the start of the trial
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- The suspected gunman's criminal activities had extended beyond Middle Franconia, as European law enforcement agencies were involved in the manhunt.
- The case is being handled by the public prosecutor's office in Bavaria, highlighting the serious nature of the allegations.
- Although the Nuremberg police were able to secure the scene of the crime and deploy additional resources, they were unable to apprehend the suspect immediately.
- The exact circumstances leading to the fatal shooting in Nuremberg, including potential motivations and the role of the accused's ex-girlfriend, are still under investigation by the German authorities.
Source: www.stern.de
