Kiel, Germany, Feb 23, (dpa/GNA) – The trial of a dentist accused of ruthless triple murder, started on Wednesday in the German port city of Kiel.
The 48-year-old man is accused of having murdered his wife, her new partner, and another man on May 19, 2021, in a crime that attracted national attention in the German media.
The prosecution alleges that the motive was revenge. Revenge on his wife for having left him; on her new partner, and on a third victim for having allegedly told the wife of the suspect’s own affairs, thereby causing the marriage to fall apart.
According to the prosecution, the attack was scrupulously planned. The suspect followed his wife in a rented vehicle, having previously hidden a tracker in her car, prosecutors said. She was shot at her new partner’s house from just 1 metre away. She was hit 48 times, and her partner was hit in his heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys.
Afterwards, the suspect allegedly drove to the acquaintance’s house and shot him five times in the head with a different, semi-automatic pistol.
On the evening after the shooting spree, the dentist confessed to the Hamburg police that he had carried out the crimes. Since then, however, he has refused to speak about the allegations, including in court on Wednesday.
His lawyer said that he may be prepared to make a statement on March 10. A second attorney in court accused the press of jumping to conclusions about the crime.
A verdict is expected on March 30.
GNA
RA
23 Feb, 2022
FSOC 004
Social Murder Journalist
New trial set in case of murdered Slovak journalist Kuciak
Bratislava, Feb 23, (dpa/GNA) – Four years after the murder of Slovakian investigative journalist, Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova, the trial against the business executive alleged to have ordered the hit is to be reopened in Slovakia.
Court spokesperson Katarina Kudjakova confirmed to dpa on Wednesday, that a fresh trial against millionaire Marian Kocner and an alleged accomplice, will begin on Monday at the Special Court for Organised Crime in Pezinok, east of Bratislava.
The 27-year-old investigative journalist and his fiancee were shot dead in their home in the village of Velka Maca on February 21, 2018.
Kuciak had been covering the cosy relationship between business and politics in the country. His last report, published posthumously, triggered mass demonstrations that led to the resignation of the government.
The investigation against Kocner, the entrepreneur accused of ordering the hit, revealed the existence of a decades-old network of corruption. Since then, numerous judges, prosecutors and high-ranking police officials have been arrested.
When Kocner and his alleged accomplice, who is being identified as Alena Zs, were acquitted in September 2020 due to lack of evidence, there was an international outcry.
In June, the country’s Supreme Court upheld an appeal by the prosecution and overturned the acquittals. The assassin and two accomplices alleged to have acted on Kocner’s orders have already been convicted.
Having been convicted of other crimes in the meantime, Kocner and Zs will remain in prison for years even if the court acquits them of the double murder charge.
According to Kudjakova, the charges in next week’s trial relate not only to the double murder but also to several other murders allegedly planned by the pair.
GNA