Status: 15.01.2024, 15:02 PM
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The two defendants (l and 7th from left) stand next to their lawyers in courtroom 8 before the start of the trial. © Soeren Stache/dpa
A woman is found dead in a car on a highway. The background is completely unclear for a long time. Now the murder trial in Potsdam has begun - and both defendants are speaking out.
Potsdam - Eight months after the violent death of a teacher on the Autobahn 9, the ex-boyfriend and the alleged shooter have each rejected the accusation of involvement in murder. "I would never have killed my son's mother or had it killed," the 42-year-old ex-boyfriend told the court. "I have come to terms with death (...) nothing to do." The former school friend and alleged shooter also denied shooting the woman in an hour-long statement.
According to the prosecution, the woman was killed in May 2023 on the hard shoulder of the A9 against the background of a dispute over their son with her ex-partner. In the eyes of the father, the woman had increasingly become a disruptive factor for the father-son relationship, said State Secretary Maria Stiller at the start of the trial before the Potsdam Regional Court on Monday. The prosecution's indictment accuses both Germans of having murdered the 40-year-old woman in May last year on the A9 motorway in Brandenburg "treacherously and for low motives with a firearm".
The school friend, also 42 years old, admitted to having spied on his acquaintance's ex-partner on his behalf with a view to the child and later to have burned the vehicle that is said to have pushed the woman away on the highway before the murder. At the time of the crime, he was asleep. However, he noticed how the argument between his school friend and the ex-girlfriend was getting bigger. However, he did not believe that he could do the deed. "I couldn't believe what had happened."
In May 2023, the police had discovered the 40-year-old woman dead in the parked car on the A9 between the Beelitz and Brück junctions (Potsdam-Mittelmark district). More than 160 witnesses are expected in the trial so far. Dpa