Ruling on the rampage in Trier largely overturned

Federal Court of Justice - Ruling on the rampage in Trier largely overturned

The trial surrounding the rampage in Trier with five fatalities must be reopened in parts. Following a decision by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe, the verdict of the Trier regional court was largely overturned due to legal errors. This means that the defendant's appeal has been upheld, the BGH announced on Monday.

The reason: The Regional Court had not justified its assumption that the defendant had acted in a state of significantly reduced culpability without legal error. The decisions on the legal consequences must therefore also be set aside.

During the rampage on December 1, 2020, a man drove his SUV through the pedestrian zone in Trier and deliberately hit passers-by. Five people died in the attack: a nine-week-old baby, its father (45) and three women aged 73, 52 and 25. There were also dozens of injured and traumatized people.

"Generalizing approach" is not enough

In August 2022, the perpetrator was sentenced to life imprisonment for multiple murders and multiple attempted murders at Trier Regional Court. The court also established the particular gravity of the guilt and ordered the man to be placed in a closed psychiatric hospital.

According to the expert opinion presented at the trial in Trier, the man suffers from paranoid schizophrenia with bizarre delusions - and is therefore of reduced culpability. This "generalizing approach" was not sufficient, the BGH judges ruled. Therefore, a newly assigned criminal chamber at Trier Regional Court would have to re-examine "the assessment of culpability".

Specifically: the culpability would have to be related to the individual acts. In addition, a possible interaction between the defendant's previous alcohol consumption and his illness would have to be taken into consideration. According to the Federal Court of Justice, "the findings on the external facts of the crime" are not affected by the retrial.

"The fact that he was driving and that people died is certain," said the accused's defense lawyer, Frank K. Peter, on Monday in Worms. The "entire subjective area" must now be re-examined. This included murder characteristics, premeditation, his client's illness and the question of possible incapacity.

In the end, there could be "a new sentence". "Perhaps, without murder characteristics being present, it could be manslaughter in several cases," Peter told the German Press Agency. He assumed that "four, five, six trial days" would be needed for a new trial. He estimated that these would be possible in spring 2024. The driver of the rampage is currently in prison. He had remained silent about the allegations during the year-long trial.

Relatives and those affected were horrified after the BGH ruling. "It's impossible that it could happen again," said Wolfgang Hilsemer, who lost his sister (73) in the rampage and whose brother-in-law later died from the injuries he sustained. "I'm already in tears again when I think about it. But they are more tears of anger than tears of grief."

He is also angry that he found the decision from the Federal Court of Justice in his letterbox on the third anniversary of the shooting rampage last Friday (December 1). "I find that impossible: I come home from the memorial service and then have to read something like that. They won't let the relatives rest in peace."