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The scene of the accident in Berlin in February 2018: The defendant is accused of more than 30 acts
Photo: Paul Zinken / picture alliance / dpa
The court shows excerpts from the video from a surveillance camera.
A light box van can be seen driving into the yard of a car workshop in an industrial park in the north of Berlin-Charlottenburg.
It's December 7th, 2017, just before 3 a.m.
The driver gets out of the car into the lighted courtyard.
He wears a safety vest that reflects the light.
He wears a mask that covers his face and gloves.
"Is that you?" Asks the presiding judge.
"Yes," says Okan K. and continues to watch the break-in in Room 220 of the Berlin Regional Court.
Two other men can be seen.
They are dressed in dark clothes and have hoods pulled over their heads.
The men carry something heavy from the workshop into the car.
Okan K. allegedly no longer knows what it is.
There were just too many thefts.
Okan K. is charged with more than 30 acts, mostly burglary.
The series ended in February 2018 when he skidded with a stolen BMW at 160 km / h at an intersection in Berlin-Wedding and raced against the entrance of a subway station.
He fled the scene of the accident on foot.
He was arrested a few weeks later.
The trial began on Tuesday before the 10th Large Criminal Chamber, chaired by Judge Thorsten Braunschweig.
The judges now go through action by action.
The act, which can be seen in excerpts as a video in the room, is the fourth case of the indictment.
"Why are you wearing a safety vest?" Asks the prosecutor.
Okan K. can't explain it.
“Have you ever thought of wearing a mask or gloves?
That's what burglars usually do, ”asks the presiding judge.
He never thought of the idea, says Okan K. He didn't even think about cameras.
The drugs went downhill
The questioning is tedious.
The defendant is not inclined to elaborate statements.
He answers shortly.
The mouth-nose masks that everyone in the hall wears make communication even more difficult.
Not every word of the accused finds its way straight through the cloth mask to the court's ear.
The 35-year-old Turk reported briefly from his life at the beginning of the day of the negotiation.
He was born in Berlin in 1985, has an older sister and an older brother.
“I had a good childhood,” he says.
"The relationship with my family has always been good."
In 1998 his father died of cancer.
At around the same time he skipped school more and more often.
For reasons that remain unclear, his mother lost custody of him at the time.
Okan K. was sent to a youth welfare facility in North Rhine-Westphalia for two years.
At the age of 18 and the extended secondary school leaving certificate, he came back to Berlin in 2003.
He found work at a greengrocer.
Then it started with drugs.
Okan K. took Tilidine, a prescription pain reliever that is said to be disinhibiting and euphoric.
"Everyone consumed it here," he says.
He doesn't explain, but the drugs appear to have taken him to jail.
He was arrested for the first time in 2004 and released again in 2007.
Again he helped out in the vegetable shop.
“I worked there for a year and didn't consume anything.
Everything was great.
Then it started again. ”Now cocaine in addition to tilidine.
"Little at first, then more and more."
2009 to 2011 prison again.
A short time in freedom, from 2013 back in prison.
In 2015 he came to a detention center for rehab.
He got relaxed and did not return from an outdoor activity in 2017.
"Why?" Asks the judge.
Missed the appointment
While still in the clinic, he took drugs again, GBL, a liquid substance that is considered a party drug.
“More than half of the station consumed,” says Okan K. “At some point I became weak.
Then it got bigger and bigger.
At some point you become dependent. "
One effect of GBL is that it makes you sleepy.
He was supposed to come back to the clinic at a certain time.
He missed the appointment.
So he stayed away completely.
It was not a planned escape.
"I was afraid to go in, I was afraid of withdrawal." He knew his use would have been exposed.
"I was afraid to face myself."
Instead, he struggled like this.
He lived with friends or took a room in cheap hotels.
He continued to use GBL, including cocaine.
"Where did the money come from?" Asks the judge.
"Criminal," says Okan K.
Did he have the idea of breaking into auto repair shops?
"We were a group," says Okan K. Sometimes he had the idea, sometimes someone else.
"Back then in the Freundeskreis we screwed up a lot of shit."
The prosecutor asks for the names of the friends, but Okan K. does not want to name them.
"Don't feel like stress when I get out." "Are you afraid of them?" "I'm not afraid of anyone." But he worries about his family.
Okan K. is the father of a seven-year-old girl.
He is engaged to his mother.
"I was always on it"
At the time, he met his friends in cafes in the Berlin districts of Neukölln and Wedding.
With their break-ins, they would primarily target cash and cars.
He spent most of the money on drugs.
He consumed cocaine worth 150 to 200 euros and GBL worth 80 to 100 euros per day.
"I was on it," says Okan K. "I was always on it."
In January he stole a BMW that, according to the indictment, was worth almost 10,000 euros.
"What did you do with it?" Asks the judge.
“Driven around, committed crimes.” He first drove the BMW against the door of one workshop to open it and, when that didn't work, against the door of another workshop.
There he stole a camera.
He sold the camera.
"I think I got 250 euros for it."
"Wouldn't it have been better to sell the car instead of driving it into a garage door and wrecking it?" "Haven't thought of that," says Okan K. That's not enough for the judge, he repeats his question.
“Why don't you sell the car?
That doesn't get into my head. ”Okan K. can't help him either.
He has no explanation.
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