Defendant Osman: The public prosecutor accuses him of stalking, coercion, property damage and bodily harm
Photo:
Olaf Wagner / imago images / Olaf Wagner
It started with feces under the doormat and garbage bags in front of the apartment door, says Klaus-Dieter Nisch.
"Then it actually got worse and worse."
Leftovers were lying in front of the door, the lock on the Nisch family's cellar door was damaged several times, the lock on their apartment door destroyed.
This is how the pensioner describes it on Friday as a witness before the Berlin-Tiergarten district court.
In August 2017, Klaus-Dieter and Karla Nisch bought an apartment in a house on Falkenhagener Strasse in Berlin-Spandau.
It was the beginning of a nightmare.
After the dirt in front of her door, her neighbor downstairs started to stand in the way of him and his wife in the stairwell and to chase them inside and outside the house.
The neighbor yelled at him and yelled directly in his ear so that he feared permanent hearing loss and went to the doctor, reports Klaus-Dieter Nisch.
He and his wife made complaints again and again.
For a long time they felt they were not taken seriously by the police.
The neighbor, that is Abdulkadir Osman, 37 years old, is now on trial for stalking, coercion, property damage and bodily harm.
According to the indictment, between April 2018 and June 2019, he is said to have made not only the Nisch couple, but also Hildegard J. life hell.
Osman lives as a tenant with his partner and six children on the first floor, the Nisch couple live one floor higher, Hildegard J. lives on the same block in the house next door.
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Before the indictment was read out, the defense had applied for the proceedings against Osman to be dropped.
Due to the media prejudice, a fair trial is no longer possible.
The court rejected the request.
Only the result of the taking of evidence is decisive for a decision by the court on any perpetrator and guilt of the accused.
Abdulkadir Osman, nicknamed "Tyson Ali" and closely related to the Rammo clan, is barely recognizable in court on that day.
He's well dressed, clean-shaven, and sits very calmly in the dock.
"He's not as harmless as he's sitting here," Klaus-Dieter Nisch will say during a break in negotiations.
During the trial, Osman takes notes and occasionally speaks to his lawyers.
Osman has many criminal records, mainly for property damage, including bodily harm.
He "does not want to comment on the allegations at the moment," said his lawyer when asked by the court.
Klaus-Dieter Nisch is at least a head shorter than Osman and of a much narrower figure.
The retiree is a reserved man.
In his statement he differentiates very precisely between assumptions, between hearsay and his own knowledge.
He says that, as a trained mechanical engineer, he installed a camera in the hallway and once installed a camera in his peephole to find out who was messing around in front of the apartment door.
One shot shows how Osman dismantles the camera in the stairwell.
Nisch also says that he saw someone disappear into Osman's apartment twice after he and his wife heard their peephole had been destroyed again.
Nisch reports that one day the tires on her car were stabbed.
He suspects Osman was behind it, "but I can't prove it".
"Were there other people with whom you had an argument?" Asks the judge.
"No," says Nisch.
Children's toys and cut up sneakers in front of Osman's apartment
The court shows photos of destroyed peepholes, damaged door locks, a broken mailbox and torn out bells.
Not only the doorbell of the niche, also that of Osman, was destroyed.
The judge asks the witness if he has an explanation.
"He always turned everything around," says Klaus-Dieter Nisch.
About five reports have been made against him.
Osman himself calls into the room that the proceedings have all been dropped before his defense admonishes him to be silent again.
Defender Florian Schoenrock presents photos.
He asks the witness Nisch if he ever saw a swastika on Osman's door.
Nisch looks shocked.
"No, I never saw that," he says: "A swastika is the very last thing. We would have gone to the police for sure."
The lawyer emphasizes that he did not say that Nisch put the swastika on, then he shows more pictures.
On them, among other things, destroyed children's toys and cut sneakers can be seen in front of Osman's apartment.
The lawyer also speaks of feces on the saddles of children's bicycles.
Nisch says he doesn't know about it.
Defender Nicole Bédé insists.
She asks what exactly the witness saw when he twice saw someone disappear into Osman's apartment after his peepholes were damaged.
Nisch says he can't say whether it was a man or a woman, at least not a child.
She asks if he knows whether Osman and his partner have brothers.
Nisch says he doesn't know.
At some point the defense attorney sums up her conclusion: "Anyone who was visiting the apartment could have been."
It is the only moment when Klaus-Dieter Nisch looks as if it is difficult for him to stay calm.
The terror has left its mark.
The pensioner reports in court that he and his wife no longer leave their home without looking around.
They are constantly on their guard and live with the feeling that the next attack could come at any time.
In addition, there would be insomnia.
"You startle at every sound at night," he says.
When asked by the court how the situation is currently, he says that it has become quieter this year.
Klaus-Dieter Nisch does not report anything in court about repeated food deliveries the evening before the start of the trial.
Even his wife did not mention it in her testimony on the same day in court, but outside the courtroom.
She says that delivery services rang several times on Thursday evening.
They would not have ordered any of these.
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