Posted by Nightbird on 2014-06-03 22:26:17

Being that most likely don't speak German & have not, maybe, followed this or know about it, it might be a good idea to explain briefly what this is about & if it directly relates to you & your family.

I for one have no idea what this is about at all so please, if you could, fill us in on the subject?

Posted by f_alk on 2014-06-03 22:42:41

Please read the previous blog entry(ies) from 2012 then.

Posted by SvenS on 2014-06-03 23:06:33

Glad they were caught and found guilty, even if it must bring little to none comfort for the loss of your friend :/

Posted by Wreckage on 2014-06-04 00:14:26

I dunno, I have often been thinking about this. It's strange to me how this couldn't be ruled murder. I don't see how the torture could possibly be that much out of control or influence of the perpetrators that it matters if they didn't want to kill him. If you have somebody under your complete control and you keep beating him while keeping him hostage it's only a matter of time till he dies.
That is, once the court accepted what objectivly happened, what they apparently did.

Posted by garyt1 on 2014-06-04 05:49:12

He has convictions of over 50 years (if not concurrently). Say he serves 30 then still that is a long time. It doesn't go anywhere near paying for what he did, or making it better, but that is a long long time. He may well die in prison.

Posted by f_alk on 2014-06-04 09:06:13

@gary1t: It's not one person, it's five convicts each with about 10 years. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

Posted by Wreckage on 2014-06-04 09:52:19

Life in Germany translates to discharge after about 15 years. These sentences indicate a discharge after somewhere between 4y 3m to 8y 1m.

I'll sum up whats written in the paper.
Five guys from Lithuania took a tramper into a van, tortured him till he would give them the security number of his bank card. They left him trapped in the van for dead, booked 4000€ from his account and escaped to Lithuania. There they were captured and brought back.

One argued, he was too drunk to remember anything, another guy is a minor. All five argued they didn't want to kill the guy.

According to the newspaper, the defense threatend to drag the trial into revision (something like an appeal, only mistakes in the decision making of the previous court are checked.) The news paper argued if the trial was dragged further out for several years, it would be a huge blow for the persons involved and that the (higher) federal court loved to take on murder charges anyways.

The court argued in the end that there is uncertainty about who of the 5 guys did precisely what and that therefore there wasn't enough for a murder conviction. It's a common practice courts use to reduce their work load.

If you are a defender and want the verdict to be milder, don't argue the case, argue wasting the judges time and patience till he submits...

Posted by JimmyFantastic on 2014-06-04 09:53:22

Should have all got life. Or executed. At least they didn't get away with it.

Posted by awambawamb on 2014-06-04 10:47:41

Ulf got the most bitter part of this. Five ignorants destroyed a life without thinking about what he was going to do.
and to do what? to buy shoes and coffee? maybe an iphone?
this is scary. I wrote a complex thought about this, but I don't feel it is still formed to write it.
50k euros are not enough tough.

Posted by f_alk on 2014-06-04 14:16:04

Thanks Wreckage, just some short correction: Ulf was driving the van, and was assaulted probably at a filling station with automated gas pumps and pay-by-card (so no service person was around). He was left in the van where he died slowly as no one of the guys seemd to care. They were captured when they tried the same thing again, but the second time the guy could escape before too much harm was done and contact the police in time.
I can't comment on the implications an appeal on points of law would have, but I will have looked the other way should one of the defending lawyers appear in front of my car.

Posted by Badoek on 2014-06-04 19:14:55

terrible story this. No matter the punishment (1 year, 10 years, life, death) it's still a terrible thing to happen.