Nuremberg, Germany, Jan 21, (dpa/GNA) – A 27-year-old French man accused of having fired deadly shots at a wedding in Germany remained silent on the first day of his trial on Wednesday.
Prosecutors say he killed the father of his former partner in front of numerous guests, amid a row over alimony payments for the couple’s two children.
The defendant’s lawyer told the Nuremberg Regional Court that his client would not address the charges.
The man’s former partner, who moved back to Germany following the couple’s separation, was ordered by a non-state Roma court in France to pay alimony for their children, prosecutor Roland Fleury said.
When the woman’s family refused to do so, the defendant’s family threatened to kill her relatives.
The dispute came to a head when, according to investigators, the man and some of his relatives travelled to Germany in March last year and shot dead his former partner’s father at the wedding.
The 47-year-old died in hospital after the defendant fired six shots at his upper body, Fleury said.
The suspect and his relatives fled back to France, where he turned himself in to the police that same night and confessed to the crime.
However, investigators say he has since remained silent on the allegations.
The man has been held in pre-trial detention in Germany since April, while police have been able to identify some of the people who accompanied him to the wedding.
German prosecutors have charged the man’s father and two brothers, who have since also been extradited to Germany, where they are held in custody with conspiracy to commit murder.
The court has scheduled 15 trial days, with a verdict possibly expected at the end of March.
GNA