Process - Man sentenced after acquittal for murder of wife
When the verdict against her father is announced, the daughter starts to scream. She drums her hands on the bench in front of her. So loudly that what the presiding judge says is almost drowned out. She sentences the young woman's father to life imprisonment - for the murder of her mother.
The chamber of the Munich I Regional Court considers it proven that the 64-year-old killed his wife with a shot to the head around nine years ago - and thus comes to a different conclusion than his fellow judges in 2022.
At that time, another chamber of the regional court had acquitted the man of the murder charge. However, because the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) overturned this controversial verdict, the trial had to be reopened.
"We looked very closely at every single detail and gave it a lot of thought," says the judge. "Do the individual parts paint a picture? Yes, it is a clear overall picture."
Husband maintains his innocence
His wife 's death in 2015 had long been treated as a suicide. After doubts arose about this, the public prosecutor finally brought murder charges against the husband, who maintained his innocence during the trial: "I didn't shoot my wife."
His defense had pleaded for the man to be acquitted of the murder charge, convicted only of a violation of the Weapons Act and for the arrest warrant against him to be revoked.
The public prosecutor, on the other hand, who had demanded a murder conviction, assumed that the Bosnian had killed his wife, to whom he had been married for 17 years and had five children together, "driven by jealousy". According to this, the relationship had been difficult - the accused had acted in a jealous and controlling manner.
The man's version
The 64-year-old, on the other hand, said in court that they had had consensual sex games with a gun as a couple. On that evening in 2015, he had wanted to take the gun out of his wife's hand during a scuffle. "Then a shot went off and she fell over."
Despite the doubts of the chamber at the time about the defendant's account, the principle of "in dubio pro reo" applied to them in the first trial before the district court - in case of doubt for the defendant.
The judges now have no such doubts on Wednesday: "The hypothesis of an accident or suicide is finally off the table," emphasized the presiding judge in her reasons for the verdict.
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- The public prosecutor's office in Munich reopened the case after the Federal Court of Justice overturned the acquittal of a man charged with his wife's murder.
- The Munich Regional Court, in a new trial, found the 64-year-old man guilty of murdering his wife in 2015, overturning a previous acquittal.
- In Bavaria, the mother of the defendant brutally protested when the judge announced her husband's life sentence for the murder of their daughter.
- Critics argue that the man's conviction for the murder is based on assumptions, as he claimed he had no intent to kill his wife during a scuffle.
- Since the Federal Court of Justice intervened, old criminality cases in Bavaria are being re-examined, leading to controversial verdicts and re-trials.
- The Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe has become a key player in regulating criminal proceedings in Germany, influencing verdicts at various regional courts.
Source: www.stern.de
