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Toni Kroos: "That's a thing that doesn't work"
Photo: www.imagephotoagency.it / imago images / Gribaudi / ImagePhoto
Football national player Toni Kroos has criticized the verdict in the Christoph Metzelder case.
The former professional footballer was sentenced to a ten-month suspended prison sentence last week for sharing child and youth pornographic files.
Metzelder has approved and disseminated photos and videos on which "you can clearly see how children's lives are being destroyed," said Kroos in his podcast "Einfach mal Luppen", in which he speaks to his brother Felix.
Metzelder went “somehow as a free man out of this court”, according to Toni Kroos: “suspended sentence or not.
That's a thing that doesn't work. "
Kroos described the verdict as "incomprehensible" because it was "zero deterrent" for other perpetrators.
The 31-year-old Real Madrid professional thinks it is “outrageous” that people convicted of tax evasion are sometimes given significantly higher fines.
Brother Felix Kroos, a professional at Eintracht Braunschweig, sees it similarly.
"Many have expressed themselves and are rightly of the same opinion that it is disgusting to do something like that," said Felix Kroos: "There are hardly any words that can be said here.
That makes you angry, such a judgment that something like this is even possible. "
Court spoke of real repentance
According to the district court, Metzelder had sent a total of 29 image and video files containing child pornography to women in 2019.
In addition, he had reportedly owned various image and video files with child pornographic content on his mobile phone, the court assumed 18 files for September 2019.
The court had assessed a number of factors mitigating the penalty.
The extensive reporting worked like an anticipated punishment.
Metzelder is unlikely to be able to pursue his professional activity or take part in public life for the foreseeable future.
He was also given positive credit for not having a criminal record, confessing, and completing therapy early on.
"He showed real remorse for me," the judge had said.
On the other hand, the punishment was aggravated by the fact that, according to the court, Metzelder had sent two video files showing the serious abuse of children.
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