As of: April 5, 2024, 12:54 p.m
By: Moritz Bletzinger
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Press
Split
Two men are said to be responsible for the death of little Danka (1). However, the body is missing. What if she's never found?
Bor – “Danka is dead,” Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić announced unequivocally. The little girl had been missing for a week at this point. A false lead led the investigation to Austria, then the tragic news from Serbia. And as clearly as the president and the police express themselves, there are still some pressing questions in the case.
Danka case (1): Three important questions remain unanswered
Three important points remain open regarding the current position of the investigation into the Danka case:
How did the little girl die?
Who might have killed her?
And where is her body?
The search for the one-year-old's body is in full swing. On Friday, police dug up a landfill near Bor - where Danka disappeared. Both suspects are said to have been brought to the search site by the police to help retrieve the body from the garbage. According to current knowledge, the men dumped Danka's body in a garbage dump. According to the police, they already confessed to this.
Danka's body is still missing: Conviction is apparently still possible in Serbia - it would be in Germany too, says Dr. Alexander Betz. © Pixsell/Imago/Stevens and Partner Law Firm
Danka's body is missing: what does this mean for the suspects? Lawyer: “You can judge without it”
Even if Danka's body never turns up, that doesn't preclude conviction. “You can also judge without, but these are major exceptions,” explains a lawyer to the Serbian portal
Srbija Danas
.
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This means that Serbian jurisprudence does not seem to differ much from German jurisprudence. With regard to German law, lawyer Dr. Alexander Betz when asked by
IPPEN.MEDIA
: “You can convict without a body, but it is much more difficult.”
Danka was allegedly strangled – but by who? Suspects blame each other
The big problem in the Danka case is that the answers to the first two questions are missing. The suspects' partial confessions are only of limited help, especially since, according to the Serbian media, they contradict each other on a crucial point.
The head of the criminal police, Ninoslav Cmolić, said: The men confessed to having hit Danka with a white Fiat Punto and taking the unconscious child to a garbage dump - believing Danka was dead. In the meantime, she woke up again, whereupon One of the two is said to have strangled her. According to Cmolić, when asked about this, the men blame each other.
Lawyer compares cases involving Danka and Maddie McCann: “It results in a long circumstantial trial”
And as a result, a real confession is missing. “This will result in a long circumstantial process,” fears criminal law expert Betz, “it takes a real confession or solid evidence. If a body is missing, a lot is already missing. Just think of the Maddie McCann case.”
What now? “In the worst case, in order to find out the truth, the public prosecutor picks someone and says: We believe that,” explains Betz. At least that would be possible in Germany.
Penalty for Danka's death: Prosecutors speak of at least ten years
The two suspects will most likely not go unpunished, as long as the current findings do not suddenly turn out to be wrong. According to
Srbija Danas,
the senior public prosecutor's office in Zaječar is currently talking
about aggravated murder with complicity and prison sentences of ten years to life imprisonment.
Questions about Danka's death remain unanswered: Lawyer explains how conviction can happen without evidence
Can this be done without evidence? “You can judge based on circumstantial evidence,” says Betz about the legal situation in Germany. This has happened in some famous cases. For example, in the Munich parking garage murder or the death of farmer Rudolf Rupp in Neuburg an der Donau. However, these precedents also show how sensitive such a conviction is: those involved in the parking garage murder are still fighting to be reopened to this day; in the case of Rudolf Rupp, his body suddenly appeared after the trial - it was assumed in court that the perpetrators had fed it to pigs.
What is actually evidence and what is just an indication is a matter of interpretation in Germany anyway. Ultimately it is the judge who decides. This is called free judicial assessment of evidence. Attorney Betz explains: “It’s about what the judge believes. There are no precise rules for this in our jurisdiction.”
(moe)