“I'll shoot you”: CDU politician shoots 20-year-olds - three and a half years in prison
Created: 01/10/2022, 7:08 PM
An ex-CDU politician was sentenced to three and a half years at the regional court in Cologne.
© IMAGO / Steinach
A former CDU local politician from Cologne was convicted of dangerous bodily harm, illicit gun possession and insult.
The case is making waves.
Cologne - "Dreckspack", "Dreckskanaken" and "Drecksausländer": With these words the former CDU politician Hans-Josef B. insulted a 20-year-old in 2019 and then shot him in the shoulder.
More than two years after the crime, the ex-local politician was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
The Cologne district court found the 74-year-old guilty of dangerous bodily harm in unity with a violation of the gun law and insult.
It is said that he displayed a "xenophobic attitude".
Cologne CDU politician shoots 20-year-olds with a migration background
The now 22-year-old victim had drunk alcohol and listened to music on the night of the crime with three friends on the banks of the Rhine in Cologne's Porz district in the immediate vicinity of the defendant's property.
When the defendant took his dog out in the garden, he started an argument with the young men, insulted them racially and then fired the shot.
B. - a passionate marksman - is said to have been drunk.
According to
Spiegel
, B., who had sat for the CDU in the Cologne-Porz district parliament since 2014, shared content on Facebook that was close to the AfD and “partly pertinent racist”.
CDU politician admits shot at 20-year-olds - the court does not believe his version
The defendant had admitted the shot at the now 22-year-old by his defense lawyers on the first day of the hearing, but had it shown as an accident.
After eight days of hearing, 20 witnesses and three expert reports, the court came to a different conclusion.
B. fired “a targeted shot in the direction of the upper body” of the victim, according to the chamber.
With three and a half years in prison, the verdict was somewhat milder than the prosecutor's office demanded (three years and nine months).
In his closing lecture, the prosecutor had spoken of a "malicious and perfidious" act because the defendant asked the 22-year-old with a gun in his hand: "Come to my property, then I'll shoot you."
Trial against CDU politicians: Defense calls victims "impostors and liars"
Neither in his statement, read by the defense lawyers on the first day of the trial, nor in his last word, the accused ex-CDU man showed a sign of regret.
His defense pleaded for acquittal and described the 22-year-old co-plaintiff as a “con man and a liar”.
The judgment is not final, an appeal can be filed.
The case made waves in Cologne.
Above all in the social networks it was discussed whether the alleged insults were possibly of a racist nature because the victim had a migrant background.
The left-wing initiative "Tatort Porz" called for protest after the verdict was pronounced.
(jo / dpa / AFP)
