The District Court of Munich II confirms the district judge.
The verdict is largely based on witnesses.
Wolfratshausen / Munich
- Public prosecutor and defense attorney agreed: The verdict of the Wolfratshausen District Court, which in January 2020 sentenced a 30-year-old seller to two years and four months in prison for resisting enforcement officers in a majority of arson and property damage, should be overturned. The defense attorney asked for an acquittal, while the prosecution asked for the sentence to be increased by two months. In the end, both came away empty-handed. The Appeals Chamber of the Regional Court Munich II announced after three days of hearing: The appeal will be rejected as unfounded. The chamber thus confirmed the judgment from the first instance.
On June 30, 2019 at around 3 a.m. on Marktstrasse in Wolfratshausen there was a police operation in a gambling hall due to disturbance of the peace in connection with a search for missing persons. When the police were about to enter, the defendant blocked their way and pushed one in the chest. So far it also admits the accused. He consistently denies the far more serious accusation. While the officials were interviewing guests inside, the 30-year-old is said to have set fire to the patrol's BMW X1.
The verdict is essentially based on the observation of a witness who lived above the restaurant at the time. The woman claims to have heard the following dialogue between two men. One said: “I'm going to light the car now.” The other replied: “You can't do that.” The answer: “Yes, I'll do that now.” A friend of the defendant confirmed this conversation to the police and thus became the main witness. At the trial, however, the man withdrew his testimony. "He didn't want to harm his friend," the court suspected as the reason for the change of heart.
The main hearing "did not produce a single objective evidence that my client did that," said defense attorney Thomas Buchner. "Nobody saw him doing it, no lighter was found on him." No traces were found on his hands or clothes. Instead, there is "any number of other suspects," emphasized the lawyer. Therefore, "in case of doubt, it can be assumed that it was not".
According to the explanations of an expert, the board came to the conclusion that it was possible to light the car with a simple lighter within about ten seconds, even “without there having to be any traces on hands or clothing”.
The court suspected that the motive was that the accused, who was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crime, was annoyed with the police: "We saw in the video how he behaved when the police approached".
During the trial, the defendant once again apologized for "standing in the way of the police officers" and again emphasized: "I did not set the car on fire." The verdict is not yet final.
The Wolfratshauser can appeal against the decision of the Appeals Chamber.
rst
By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our new, regular Wolfratshausen-Geretsried newsletter.
