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Elbe in Hamburg: Search for 15-year-old (June 18, 2021)
Photo: Jonas Walzberg / dpa
The 19-year-old defendant in the trial for a knife attack after a fatal swimming accident on the Elbe has been sentenced to seven years in prison.
The Hamburg Regional Court found the young man guilty of attempted murder and intentional bodily harm under juvenile criminal law.
The court refrained from the originally discussed admission to a psychiatric ward.
An expert report had attested the defendant schizophrenia, which he denies.
According to the conviction of the court, the accused wanted to avenge the death of his 15-year-old brother, who drowned on June 18 last year in a swimming accident in the Elbe near Blankenese.
One day after the accident, he stabbed the 15-year-old's best friend in the Harburg district four times in the back with a jackknife without warning, injuring him life-threateningly because he believed he could have saved his brother.
The body of the drowned brother was only found two days after the fact.
With its verdict, the court corresponded to the demands of the public prosecutor, who had demanded seven years in prison for the 19-year-old.
Revenge was the main motive, said the prosecutor.
The defense, on the other hand, painted the picture of a young person who was neglected by his parents and had little access to education, who was in a mental state of emergency - and called for a "moderate youth penalty" of up to three years in prison.
wit/dpa
