The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Process for acid attack on manager Günther: Richter suggests that the accused confess

2022-06-24T10:49:22.872Z


Four years ago, manager Bernhard Günther was fatally injured with sulfuric acid. Now the trial against a 42-year-old has begun. The burden of proof against the accused seems overwhelming.


Enlarge image

Ex-Innogy manager Bernhard Günther (l.) and his lawyer Martin Meinberg, accused (r., with covered face) in the courtroom in Wuppertal

Photo: Federico Gambarini / dpa

The trial of the acid attack on energy manager Bernhard Günther has begun at the Wuppertal district court.

At the start of the hearing, the presiding judge, Holger Jung, appealed to the 42-year-old defendant from Belgium to confess to the crime.

The files speak "with a high degree of probability for a guilty verdict," said Jung.

Günther, then CFO of the RWE subsidiary Innogy, was watched over by two masked figures about 200 meters from his front door in a park on Sunday morning, March 4, 2018, and attacked from behind.

They poured highly concentrated sulfuric acid over his head.

Günther was taken to a special clinic with severe chemical burns, at times his life was in danger.

The suspect was arrested in December 2021 in the Belgian province of Limburg.

According to the public prosecutor's office, a DNA trace secured at the crime scene incriminates the man.

According to Judge Jung, the accused also has an injury that could have come from the crime.

He strongly recommends that the accused reconsider his silence on the allegation.

A confession could save him "a few years" in prison.

Günther's co-prosecutor Martin Meinberg also asked the accused to participate in the investigation.

If the defendant names “horse and rider,” “we would appreciate that.

It would be a piece of moral and personal reparation.« Meinberg spoke of a terrible »event that has never happened before in the German economy.«

The 42-year-old had denied the allegations when he was arrested in Belgium and then remained silent.

The defendant faces between three and 15 years in prison if convicted of intentionally causing serious bodily harm.

Günther himself was present at the start of the trial.

"This is an important day for my family and for me, but not an easy day either," Günther said before the trial began.

The assassination left many traces both internally and externally.

"The body feels strange," said the 55-year-old.

His eyelids are scarred.

»I feel that every morning when I wake up, that the world is no longer the way it was before the attack.«

Two years before the acid attack, Günther had been attacked and beaten up by strangers.

Günther suspects the client for both robberies in his professional environment.

fek/dpa

Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2022-06-24

You may like

Life/Entertain 2024-03-18T12:16:42.587Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.