As of: March 27, 2024, 4:09 p.m
Comments
Press
Split
The defendant (r) sits in the courtroom in the criminal justice building at the beginning of the murder trial.
© Marcus Brandt/dpa
A man shoots a 27-year-old in a Hamburg shisha bar.
Months later, the police arrested a suspected accomplice.
However, his involvement has not been confirmed in court.
Hamburg - Two darkly dressed and masked men storm into a shisha bar in Hamburg-Hohenfelde on a late summer evening and approach a guest in the bar.
One of them shoots the 27-year-old twice with a silver pistol.
A shot hits him in the heart and kills him.
Then the masked men escape.
The events of July 27, 2022 are recorded by a surveillance camera, as the presiding judge Matthias Steinmann explained on Wednesday when announcing the verdict at the Hamburg Regional Court.
After a three-month trial, the criminal chamber acquitted a 26-year-old of murder charges.
According to the original indictment, the accused was supposed to be one of the perpetrators, but did not shoot himself.
The crime could not be solved because two important witnesses did not want to testify, explained Steinmann.
The court was not able to compulsorily examine the two women living in Switzerland.
The judge, who personally tried to persuade the witnesses to testify in court, was extremely disappointed.
“The result is also bitter for the co-plaintiff, who had hoped to find out why her son was shot so coldly,” said the judge.
In their pleadings, the defense and public prosecutors had requested acquittal.
The crime on that July day at 11:07 p.m. only lasted half a minute.
The first emergency calls were received by the police seconds after the crime.
“Panic broke out in the bar,” said Steinmann.
The perpetrators were able to escape undetected.
The man killed was deeply involved in the international drug trade.
He is said to have defrauded an Arab wholesaler living in Spain.
Steinmann explained that he paid for this with his life on behalf of this man.
The murder was a “staged execution”.
The 26-year-old was found guilty of another charge.
The criminal chamber sentenced him to two years and four months in prison for violating the War Weapons Control Act.
The police found a submachine gun in a friend's apartment that had the defendant's fingerprint on it and which he admitted to owning in court.
“This is not a trivial matter, but a crime,” said Steinmann about this charge.
On August 6, 2022, there was a fatal incident in the apartment in the Lurup district.
A younger brother of the friend, who kept the submachine gun and other weapons, was hit by an accidental shot and died in his mother's arms, Steinmann said.
My news
Baby happiness after the end of his career: Olympic ski champion becomes a father for the first time a few days after retirement
19 mins ago
Bankruptcy of German industry giant: next traditional company goes bankrupt
“Technical problems” with the Leopard: Denmark points to Germany after bumpy Ukraine donation
36 mins ago
Accident with five deaths on the A9 near Leipzig: Investigators provide initial information about the cause
Is the end of Putin's Ukraine war coming?
Kremlin sources reveal possible plan for Kharkiv
Sweater, park bench, daffodils: The hidden messages in Princess Kate's video reading
When the police arrived, another brother was about to take the weapons away.
However, the officers were able to secure them, including the submachine gun with the fingerprint.
The investigators now undertook a “major eavesdropping attack” on the defendant’s apartment.
They listened in on conversations that often involved drug deals but rarely about the shootings in the hookah bar.
At the end of November 2022, an ex-girlfriend of the defendant, who worked as a nurse in Basel together with another friend, unexpectedly contacted the Hamburg police.
They had both been in the 26-year-old's apartment while it was being monitored by the police.
When questioned, the ex-girlfriend stated that the defendant had confessed the crime to her.
He was not the shooter, but his companion.
She also confirmed that the defendant had a protective vest like the one the police had found near the crime scene with a mixed DNA trace.
The statements of the women aged 20 and 21 gave rise to strong suspicion.
At the beginning of December 2022, the police arrested the accused in Hamburg.
In July 2023, the Hamburg Regional Court sentenced him to five years and three months for drug offenses.
Like the current one, this judgment is not yet legally binding.
The defendant vigorously denied in court that he was in the shisha bar in Hohenfelde on the night of the crime.
He admitted to having the protective vest.
But he gave it to someone else before the crime.
The court found it unlikely that the professional perpetrators were wearing the heavy protective vests or had put them on for their escape.
A cell phone analysis shows that the defendant communicated intensively with a woman in Turkish on the night of the crime.
At the exact time of the crime, he sent a message to a woman in Spain.
The defendant also knew the drug dealer in Spain.
However, it was not possible to prove that he had a reliable relationship with the man behind the attack.
dpa